Marco Rubio: Delay IRS Penalties Since Obamacare Sites Not Working

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., made the television rounds on Tuesday morning as he takes aim at the online launch of President Barack Obamas federal health-care program. Rubio plans to introduce a bill deferring penalties on those who do enroll into federal health care due to the continuing problems with the website.

I think there are those two separate issues that we need to confront, Rubio said on This Morning on CBS. The first is whether Obamacare should even exist or function. Obviously, I believe it should be repealed and replaced, but thats a separate issue from the one that Im raising now with regard to this law that I intend to introduce. What Im arguing is this: The law says very clearly if, at some point next year, you do not have health insurance, you havent bought it, the IRS, youre going to owe them money, a penalty. You talked about it in the package that introduced this segment. The reality of it is its unfair to punish people for not purchasing a product that they cant purchase right now because the technology thats in place, the website theyre supposed to buy it on -- by the presidents own admission -- is not working. So, all Im calling for is a delay on that requirement, until the General Accounting Office of the United States certifies that the website is up and working and functioning and has been functioning for six consecutive months. I think thats a prudent approach.

Rubio continued pushing that message on Fox and Friends" on Fox News Tuesday morning.

Next year, everyone will be required to purchase health insurance, Rubio said. If you dont, youre going to owe the IRS money. Thats called the individual mandate. One of the ways that that becomes available, according to this brilliant idea called Obamacare, is to make these exchanges available online. But theyre not working. So how are you going to go after people next year using the IRS to punish them if the thing youre forcing them to buy isnt available for them to buy because the websites not working? You know, Consumer Reports yesterday warned people to stay off the websites until they figure this out. So the law Im going to introduce basically delays that requirement until the General Accounting Office has certified that its been up and running and effectively working for six months consecutive. And I think thats a prudent approach given the problems that its facing by the White Houses own admission.

Rubio ripped Obama for not being upfront with the American people about the problems of the sites.

The fact is there is no transparency, Rubio said on Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning. Theyre not sharing accurate numbers as to how well or not well its working, how many people have actually been able to enroll in insurance, and receive it or not. Theyre not being transparent, which is just adding more and more doubt to this entire process. Theyve argued now that theyre going to have this tech surge and bring all these experts in to fix these websites. They wont tell us who exactly theyre bringing in and they wont tell us how much theyre spending on it. What theyre worried about is increased criticism of the law if they actually open it up and show people all the ugly things that are going on in the implementation, but I think its proven to be quite counterproductive.