RICHARD EPSTEIN: The EPA Gets High on Greenhouse Gases.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 167.

LIZ PEEK: Why Elites Attack Mainstream America.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: The ACA: More Expensive, Less Choice, Less Quality. Fundamentally transformed!

BUT POINTING THEM OUT MADE YOU A SEDITIONIST: Programmers saw red flags while building Obamacare website.

As questions mount over the website’s failure, insider interviews and a review of technical specifications by The Associated Press found a mind-numbingly complex system put together by harried programmers who pushed out a final product that congressional investigators said was tested by the government and not private developers with more expertise.

Project developers who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity — because they feared they would otherwise be fired — said they raised doubts among themselves whether the website could be ready in time. They complained openly to each other about what they considered tight and unrealistic deadlines. One was nearly brought to tears over the stress of finishing on time, one developer said. Website builders saw red flags for months.

A review of internal architectural diagrams obtained by the AP revealed the system’s complexity. Insurance applicants have a host of personal information verified, including income and immigration status. The system connects to other federal computer networks, including ones at the Social Security Administration, IRS, Veterans Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.

President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged technical problems that he described as “kinks in the system.” He also promised a “tech surge” by leading technology talent to repair the painfully slow and often unresponsive website that has frustrated Americans trying to enroll online for insurance plans at the center of Obama’s health care law.

But in remarks at a Rose Garden event, Obama offered no explanation for the failure except to note that high traffic to the website caused some of the slowdowns. He said it had been visited nearly 20 million times — fewer monthly visits so far than many commercial websites, such as PayPal, AOL, Wikipedia or Pinterest.

Heck, I get a decent faction of that at InstaPundit.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Seven ‘Solutions’ That Won’t Save Obamacare. “Most of what seems to be on the table ranges from not helpful to actively unhelpful.” So, kinda like ObamaCare itself.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Technology Is Killing ObamaCare, But It Might Save The Rest of Us.

HE IS TRULY MULTI-TALENTED AND AWESOME: Ed Driscoll: New Media Master and Cultural Conquistador.

JAMES TARANTO: ‘The Site Was Very Easy to Use:’ The Obama administration draws a red line and defies reality to intrude.

The Obama administration is even deeper in denial about the ObamaCare fiasco than the president’s shockingly bewildered speech yesterday indicated. Witness the new ad touting HealthCare.gov, the nonfunctioning website (don’t worry, they put it on YouTube). “The site was very easy to use,” declares Deborah Lielasus, a self-employed quinquagenarian New Hampshire woman, who, according to the YouTube blurb, “will save hundreds of dollars each month” and “has better coverage, lower deductibles, and lower co-pays.”

Did she really find the site “very easy to use”? We suppose this is subjective, and maybe she has preternatural patience or is some kind of computer savant. But National Review’s Sterling Beard managed to track her down, and she “said it actually took her three days to enroll.” The ad would be deceptive if it weren’t so unbelievable to begin with.

There’s another problem here: Lielasus is purportedly getting a free lunch: better coverage with lower premiums, deductibles and copayments than someone with her risk profile would be able to negotiate absent price controls. But people can get a free lunch only if other people pick up the tab. The technical term for those other people is “suckers.” In the case of ObamaCare the suckers are young and healthy people who normally would be cheaper to insure.

Another ObamaCare ad suggests that they’ve found at least one sucker. Meet Daniel McNaughton, 22, a Florida college student who was able to buy insurance from the federal exchange.

According to NR’s Beard, however, McNaughton is not a typical 22-year-old. He has served as “the webmaster of his local Democratic party,” as “the chairman of the Young Democrats of Lee County and as a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention.” In other words, he has a political motivation to participate in ObamaCare. If he’s a sucker, he’s like the sucker who joins a religious cult and gives it all his money.

But it turns out he isn’t a sucker after all, for his lunch is, if not free, at least highly discounted. He says in the ad: “Getting coverage this good at this price, I’m thrilled.” Beard reports McNaughton is receiving a $200-a-month subsidy from taxpayers on a $270 insurance plan. His premium may be enough to balance out some older person’s price-controlled one, but it’s paid for in part with money borrowed from the Chinese.

It’s Potemkin villages all the way down.

PRESIDENT CHAUNCEY GARDNER: Sebelius: Obama Didn’t Know About Website Problems Until After Launch. When he read about it in the newspapers, I guess, like with Benghazi and the IRS scandal.

JOHN HINDERAKER cruelly dissects ignorant haters. “So what is going on here? Rich liberals hire kids–-recent college graduates, or maybe college or high school students–-to produce idiotic ‘research reports’ that can be dismantled by anyone familiar with arithmetic, let alone the oil and gas industry, of which these kids obviously know nothing at all. The claims these reports make are completely divorced from reality, but liberals don’t seem to care.”

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Lawsuit In IRS Targeting Scandal Expands.

Related: The IRS: Harrassing Some, Overpaying Others.

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Why Professor Lessig’s “dependence corruption” is not a founding-era concept.

JACKASSERY IS HIS PRIMARY MODE OF OPERATION: “The Bill Moyers operation thinks mocking religious people is a good move. I say it’s prime jackassery.” Also, Bill Moyers’ own finances don’t hold up so well under scrutiny.

LIST: 7 Republican Senators Most Vulnerable To A Primary.

MICKEY KAUS: “Perhaps we elected a President who isn’t interested in how the nuts and bolts of government work–as long as he worries about the big legislation, what goes on in the bureaucratic boxes is a second order problem, right? If that’s what Obama thinks, his health care rollout is, as they say, a teachable moment.”

OF COURSE HE DOES: Steny Hoyer wants more money to fix Obamacare exchanges. The GOP should exact a stiff price.

ROGER SIMON: Rand Paul’s New Constitutional Amendment Should Be a Litmus Test for Who Stays in Congress.

INSPECTOR GENERAL: IRS Made $133 Billion in Improper EITC Payments in Past Decade, 25% Error Rate Violates Executive Order. The country’s in the very best of hands.

LET THEM EAT OBAMACARE: Sebelius: I Haven’t Tried To Sign Up For Obamacare Because I Have Health Insurance.

SHOULDA TAKEN THAT LIFE PRESERVER THE GOP WAS READY TO THROW: Jeanne Shaheen: Hey, maybe Obama should think about delaying that individual mandate. “You know they’re all thinking about it, even if they won’t all say so.” If I were the GOP, my position would be that that ship has sailed, and you’re going to have to live with the results.

IT’S NOBODY’S BUSINESS BUT THE TURKS’: Sen. Pat Roberts Sees Spike in Facebook Support… from Istanbul.

NICK GILLESPIE ON CROSSFIRE: President Obama ‘Like Hitler in the Bunker.’

I dunno, Hitler seems to be more on top of things.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Anonymous Twitter Troll Turns Out To Be White House Official. Well, he’s fired now, but he left us with gems like this: “I’m a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett concerns me.” I don’t think she’s vacuous at all. I think she knows exactly what she’s doing.