Chris Wallace challenged Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) on the litany of issues Obamacare is experiencing on Fox News Sunday.
The Illinois senator indicated "ultimately" Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress on technical glitches Obamacare is experiencing, but noted he is unsure under what circumstances the testimony will occur.
Durbin then transitioned to Democratic talking points on Obamacare enrollment, initially claiming 476,000 people have "signed up" before backtracking after Wallace corrected him.
"What else are we going to do but take their applications and process them?" Durbin said as he tried to regain his footing:
SEN. DURBIN: Listen, ultimately Secretary Sebelius will testify before Congress, you know that, I don't know about the circumstances with this last minute, let's do it in a few days, but 17 million people, 17 million Americans have already visited these websites.
WALLACE: How many have signed up?
SEN. DURBIN: Almost half a million.
WALLACE: No, half a million have filed applications and the government continues to refuse to say how many are enrolled.
SEN. DURBIN: What else are we going to do but take the applications and process them? But that's an indication of national interest [in healthcare]. One of the most successful states per capita so far is Kentucky. The state of Senator McConnell and Senator Rand Paul. They've had 10,000 people. As governor Steve Beshear as done there, it's an amazing outpouring of interest in health insurance.
WALLACE: SO in 30 seconds, so do you think it's been a success, sir?
SEN. DURBIN: I think it's on it's way to being a substantial success. It's off to a rough start with the website. [...]
Unfortunately, the assumption HHS will be able to process all of their Obamacare applications is not a forgone conclusion. Several reports from last week, including from liberal Washington Post writer Ezra Klein, indicate extensive "back end" glitches with healthcare.gov could severely compromise the enrollment process: