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(Cartoon from the always brilliant Michael Ramirez)

By now, everyone knows what an unmitigated disaster the “rollout” of ObamaCare has been.

But looking at the timeline, it is shocking to see the depth of their ineptitude.

This really was a “disaster waiting to happen.”

Here are the highlights (or rather, low points) in the “planning” of this mess.

But do look at the entire timeline to get a better sense of Team Obama’s utter incompetence.

Via The Washington Post: A timeline of the Affordable Care Act

May 11, 2010: David Cutler, a Harvard professor and health adviser to the 2008 Obama campaign, sends memos to White House officials — including one dated May 11 to then-director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers — warning that the administration needs an outside expert to oversee work on building insurance exchanges and other facets of the massive law.

(Note: Today, CBS News reports a much more alarming version of this memo. See related articles below)

Early 2011: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — a large federal agency spread among locations in the District, Bethesda and Baltimore — takes over responsibility for building the insurance marketplaces from the unit that had reported directly to Sebelius. As a result, the work of building the federal exchanges becomes fragmented.

Spring 2011: The White House tells HHS employees they may not publish diagrams showing how a federal health exchange could work, known as “concepts of operation,” out of concern that the complicated image could be seized as ammunition by the law’s Republican foes.

Late November 2012: Standards for insurance coverage under exchanges aren’t proposed until after Obama’s reelection, just before Thanksgiving, and do not become final until February 2013. Another regulation that spelled out important rules for insurance premiums was also delayed until after the election.

Dec. 19, 2012: Obama meets at the White House with top aides, including Sebelius, and tells the group that the health-care law, and implementing it well, will be the most important thing in his presidency.

Late 2012 to January 2013: Staff within the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, in charge of implementing much of the law, says that the time frame for building the federal exchange was becoming so compressed that there would not be enough time to conduct “end to end” testing of HealthCare.gov.

July 18: Two Blue Cross Blue Shield Association lobbyists tell aides to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that they are concerned there is not enough time to test the Web site.

Aug. 17: The project’s largest contractor, CGI Federal, sends a memo to about a dozen staff members inside CMS, updating the schedule of work on the federal exchange. Less than a month and a half before launch, the memo says the company’s portion of work on the exchange is 55 percent complete.

Sept. 5: White House officials visit the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a final demonstration of HealthCare.gov. Some staff members worried that it would fail right in front of the president’s aides.

Related:

CBS News: Obamacare: Memo reveals health care adviser warned W.H. was losing control 3 years ago

Wall Street Journal: The ObamaCare Con Job (Article can be read here: via Investor Village)

Wall Street Journal: You Also Can’t Keep Your Doctor

Weekly Standard: ObamaCare’s Mugged by Reality Moment

CNS News: Obamacare Spiraling Downward