Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. faces reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 11, 2014, following a caucus lunch  (AP)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) explained Wednesday that the Obamacare open enrollment period was extended earlier this week because people just aren’t “educated on how to use the Internet.”

“We have hundreds of thousands of people who tried to sign up who didn’t get through,” he told reporters. “There are some people who are not like my grandchildren who can handle everything so easily on the Internet, and these people need a little extra time.”

“It’s not — the example they gave us is a 63-year-old woman came into the store and said, ‘I almost got it. Every time I just about got there, it would cut me off.’ We have a lot of people just like this through no fault of the Internet, but because people are not educated on how to use the Internet,” he said.

Absent from the senator's explanation for why Obamacare signups have failed to meet earlier expectations was any mention of the well-documented failings of the healthcare.gov website:

The White House announced late Tuesday evening that the open enrollment period to sign up for Obamacare would be extended past March 31, hinting that the grace period could be as long as six weeks.

Consumers can now apply for a deadline extension by using the “honor system,” the Washington Post reported.

Because “the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth,” consumers will only be required mark a box on the healthcare.gov website indicating that they tried to sign up before the March 31 deadline.

(H/T: Washington Free Beacon)

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