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Website Developers: Obama Administration Should Accept Blame For Health Care Rollout 'Disaster'

WASHINGTON (CBS Detroit) - It's not all our fault.

That's the word from executives from CGI Federal who are appearing Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to answer questions about the litany of problems with the HealthCare.gov website.

Developers who helped to build the website for people to buy health insurance under Obamacare testified before the panel on what had gone wrong to cause the technical difficulties in accessing the site.

CGI says the Obama administration should share the blame, and Michigan Republican Congressman Fred Upton, who chairs that committee, agrees.

"Top administration officials and lead contractors appeared before this committee, looked us in the eye, and assured us repeatedly that everything was on track," said Upton, "Except that it wasn't, as we now know too well."

Since the program launched on Oct. 1, many Americans have reported being unable to sign on to the main Obamacare website or create accounts.

Upton says problems with the website put the public in a bind.

"How can the administration punish innocent American by forcing them to buy from a system that does not work and that's rollout has been nothing short of a disaster?" Upton said.

Earlier this week, President Obama acknowledged that there are problems with the website.  He said there are "no excuse" for the problems, stressing, however, that the issues are with the site only — and not the Affordable Care Act itself.

Some Republicans as well as Democrats are asking that the enrollment deadline be pushed back because of the website glitches.

The President said the administration has "people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity" and get the site running smootly ASAP.

Meantime, CBS DC reports computer experts are trying to figure out just what exactly is in the program.  The New York Times has reported one percent of the site, five million lines of code, needs to be rewritten.

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