Obamacare hearing 24Oct2014
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., shows a collection of media headlines outlining initially negative reaction in 2005 of the Medicare drug plan, during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 24, 2013. Reuters

A U.S. House hearing on the glitches plaguing HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, got testy Thursday morning when Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was asked to yield his time.

“No, I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever this thing is!” Pallone responded after being asked to yield to Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, his colleague on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (Watch the clip here.)

"This is not a monkey court," Barton responded.

Pallone then shot back, "Do whatever you want; I'm not yielding."

As the hearing got under way, Pallone said Republicans "don't have clean hands coming here," referring to their effort to repeal Obamacare instead of fixing it.

"Let the goal here be to fix it, not nix it," he said.

The committee is holding a hearing on the problems with the HealthCare.gov website Americans are using to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Four representatives of contractors hired to work on and with the website were testifying Thursday on Capitol Hill. The hearing is titled "PPACA Implementation Failures: Didn't Know or Didn't Disclose?"

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