( CNN ) -- Before the October 1 rollout of Healthcare.gov , a key concern was whether the Affordable Care Act system would create a `` death spiral '' for insurers . That crisis could be precipitated by an unenthusiastic response from younger , healthier Americans . These are the people whose high premiums and low demand for services are necessary for the risk pools to assume the costs of covering pre-existing conditions at community-pricing rates , as well as buffering the premiums of older and needier Americans . Instead , the emerging `` death spiral '' crisis is one of the credibility for the White House and the idea that big government-program interventions work better than the private sector those interventions seek to reform . The Department of Health and Human Services had 42 months and $ 400 million to create an operational Web portal that connects Americans who now are required by law to buy coverage from insurers , while connecting to the IRS to qualify people for federal subsidies in the exchanges . For the last several months , HHS and the White House assured everyone that the system development was on track for an October 1 launch . Democrats fought a pitched battle against Republicans over the last month to keep the GOP from forcing a delay of the rollout . Now , suddenly , the idea of a delay has moved from the ramblings of `` anarchists , '' as Harry Reid described Obamacare opponents , to mainstream Democratic thought . Sen. Richard Blumenthal , a Democrat from deep-blue Connecticut , told a panel on MSNBC on Thursday that the mandate needs to be delayed , depending on `` how soon these glitches are going to be solved . '' That will depend , Blumenthal said , on `` leveling with the American people . '' That honesty has been in short supply . More than two weeks into the crisis , HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNN 's Sanjay Gupta that President Barack Obama had no inkling of the failure until he read about it in the papers , which follows a pattern of denials at the White House . Sebelius also implied that the failure took her by surprise too , even though the ACA was her agency 's highest priority over the last 42 months , and the system failed a light-load test days before the launch . Sebelius must have also missed the August report from the HHS Inspector General pointing out major flaws in the system and its testing , even though Reuters managed to notice it . Even former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the notion that the White House did n't know about the Healthcare.gove problems `` unbelievable , '' while National Journal 's Ron Fournier called it `` either a lie ... or an unfathomable lack of oversight . '' It could also be both , which is the possibility that now has Democrats doing a 180 and suggesting or demanding delays in the rollout . Constituents fear dealing with IRS penalties for failure to buy insurance through a system they ca n't access and HHS ca n't fix , or even predict when it will be fixed . Even those who have managed to buy insurance through the site now have to wonder whether their insurers have their correct data . Meanwhile , Obama and Sebelius now want to reassure Americans that they have a grip on the problem ... by bringing in the private sector to fix what the government failed to execute . Rarely have we seen such a confluence of incompetence , irresponsibility , and prevarication all at the same time . The death spiral of White House credibility wo n't just damage Democrats in the short run , but it will damage the agenda of advocates of activist government for years . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Edward Morrisdey .
Edward Morrissey : Obamacare site launch has hurt administration 's credibility . Comment: He says even Democrats skeptical officials did n't know site not ready to be unveiled . Morrissey : Democrats credibility is damaged , idea of government-program interventions is , too .