The rollout of Obamacare has been a "multi-hundred-million-dollar disaster," and there is no justification for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to keep her job, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells Newsmax.
He also declares that despite pessimistic predictions, the Republican Party could do "very, very well" in 2014 because of the "failure" of the current administration.
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Gingrich was first elected to the House in 1978 and served as speaker from 1995 until he left office in 1999. He sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.
He is currently a panelist on CNN's "Crossfire," and his most recent book is "
Victory at Yorktown."
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In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Wednesday, Gingrich says "everything we're seeing about this rollout is very disturbing. The very fact that I'm talking to you on the day when the president's staff is meeting in secret with the insurance companies should worry every American. What kind of deal is being cut? What kind of story are they agreeing on?
"They won't tell us the truth about what is happening with the website, they won't tell us how many people are signing up, and the people who go onto the site aren't being given honest, accurate information.
"This whole system may well be collapsing by January as people learn how much they're losing – 300,000 people in Florida were just told yesterday they're losing their health insurance. They're going to be forced into this government program, which would be more expensive with higher deductibles. This is the opposite of what President Obama promised as a candidate. It's in deep trouble and as people learn more about it, it's going to be in deeper trouble."
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President Obama arbitrarily delayed implementation of the employer mandate for one year.
Asked if the president has any constitutional power to change the date of a law, Gingrich responds: "I don't think he does unless it's written within the law, and I can't quite tell from the lawyers I talk to whether or not he can do that.
"I am told he could postpone the tax on the individual mandate if they can't get the system to work because that was written into the law, because they realized it might all fall apart. [They have indicated] that nobody will be punished in 2014 for not signing up for a system that they can't sign up on."
As for what Congress should do if it is determined that the president doesn't have the constitutional power to change the date of a law, Gingrich opines: "The first thing to do is for someone to simply file a lawsuit and take him to court and say, you don't have the right to do this. This has happened a number of times in American history and I suspect that there's a fair chance the court would slap him down if in fact he's clearly gone beyond the law."
Gingrich agrees with many in Congress who say Sebelius should resign over the problems plaguing the online federal insurance-exchange marketplace.
"Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas was the first person to call for that," he says. "Ironically, he worked on the staff of Congressman [Keith] Sebelius, who's the father-in-law to Secretary Sebelius.
"There's no question this is a disaster. It's a multi-hundred-million-dollar disaster. She's in charge of it. In the private sector when you have a disaster, you fire the person who's in charge. So I can't see any justification for her keeping her job that she has failed so deeply to do."
ConservativeHQ.com Chairman Richard Viguerie recently predicted a GOP primary bloodbath in 2014, saying that Republicans who voted to end the shutdown over Obamacare will face serious internal challenges.
"Oh, it may happen in a few places," Gingrich comments. "But I have a new book coming out called 'Breakout,' which outlines how we can go on offense, how we can be positive, how we can bring the great breakthroughs that are occurring in the rest of society to Washington.
"A positive, solutions-oriented Republican Party faced with the failure of the current administration could, in fact, do very, very well in 2014.
"Sometimes people in Washington get overwhelmed. The country at large wants to know what are we going to do about jobs, what are we going to be doing with the deficit, how are we going to fix this total mess that Obamacare's becoming. They would like to see a Republican Party that is positive and that is offering a replacement for the failed policies of the current administration."
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Asked if he GOP has to unite to win, Gingrich tells Newsmax:
"We have to unite by 2016 but I wouldn't exaggerate how deep the disagreements are. We have a news media desperate to set up every possible fight among Republicans and which consistently ignored the fact that 55 Democrats had voted with the House Republicans for clean continuing resolutions for specific parts of the government. They didn't want to cover the Democrats who were disagreeing with the president but they were eager to find Republicans fighting each other.
"I wouldn't exaggerate it. This is a party that can easily accommodate both Ted Cruz and Chris Christie and we'll do just fine if we focus on being positive and on finding better solutions for the future that allow us to get back to a balanced budget, to get back to economic growth and jobs, to get back to having an America that's very dynamic so all of our young people can have a better future."
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