“The majority of people calling for me to resign,” Sebelius said, “I don’t work for.”
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday rebuked Republican lawmakers calling for her to resign.
{mosads}“The majority of people calling for me to resign, I would say, are people I don’t work for, and who do not want this program to work in the first place,” she said at a press conference in Phoenix.
Dozens of Republican lawmakers have called for Sebelius to either resign or be fired for her role in the bumpy rollout of the ObamaCare online insurance exchanges. Some Democrats have suggested someone should lose their job, although none have singled out Sebelius.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus slammed the secretary for her remarks.
“It is amazing that the Obama administration doesn’t understand that their bosses are the American people. Maybe that is why the administration continues to push this train wreck of a healthcare law and refused to heed years of warning signs that ObamaCare was the wrong prescription to fix America’s healthcare problems. It’s time for President Obama to do what he should have done weeks ago and fire Secretary Sebelius,” he said in a statement.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Sebelius said she has spoken to the president about the website issues but that her resignation has not come up.
The HHS secretary will testify in front of a congressional panel next week as part of a series of hearings on problems plaguing the HealthCare.gov website.
Sebelius was in Phoenix on Thursday visiting with operators at a call center for the healthcare exchange.
– This post was updated at 11:48 a.m.