DR. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Look, at every level, every number that you get on this is either inflated or deceptive. As we just heard from Steve [Hayes], the number of enrollees are not enrollees. It's people who put stuff in their shopping cart. Amazon would never call it a sale until you get a sale. And they don't know how many have made the sale. And that's because what they call euphemistically, the back-end, which is the cash register of the whole system, is not working.
The idea that you have to hand-match people who paid a premium with the insurers isn't 20th century technology, it is 19th century technology. An insurer has to find the person, call them up, go overall of the details on the form and then adjust them, which of course is impossible to do in any substantial number.
The administration speaks about having had 3 1/3 million signed up by the end of December. They are 3 million short as of now. There is no way it is conceivable that they could sign up that number and even if they did it is not conceivable that the insurers could hand-match the information. I think all of this is to assuage Democrats to give them something to hang their hats on and pretend everything is okay on the recess, but the beginning of January is going to be a train wreck for them.