Dear Mark: The administration has come out and said the healthcare.gov website has been mostly fixed and that it has had over 1 million visits. I have serious doubts that these claims are accurate or can even be substantiated. A lot of people were kicked off of their insurance plans and need something for next year. Should we trust that they will be able to get insurance through the website? — Doubting Thomas

Dear Doubting: Of course you can't trust the administration or the website. Listen carefully to what presidential spokesperson Jay Carney actually said at one of his press briefings this week. "The president believes that the site has been significantly improved." Believes? My youngest daughter "believes" that the Elf on the Shelf magically moves around our house each night.

Team Obama and its bedmates are carefully parsing their words and using terms like "progress," "functional," "stable" and "visitors." But until I hear sentences like "here is the number of people fully enrolled and ready to go to the doctor on Jan 1, 2014," then all their cheap numerical rhetoric is merely political spin designed to fool the public.

A racecar's engine can be "functional," but that doesn't mean it's ready for the race. In the case of the Obamacare website, the motor is barely running on one cylinder and the transmission hasn't even been built yet.

The Obamacare website is like the old Three Stooges pantomime horse with each half of the costume running around in different directions. The administration loves to talk about the website working better but that is only in reference to the "front end." Team Obama has intentionally ignored the problems with the "back end."

Numerous experts have testified before congress about the lack of security on the website and now it's being widely reported that the ability for insurance companies to be paid once people sign up has not even been fully constructed yet. How would you like to own a business where you are forced to provide services before you even know how you will be paid?

This on top of the fact that nearly one-third of applicants may not have any coverage on Jan 1 because insurance companies in the exchanges are receiving misinformation because of website flaws. Maybe Joe Biden is running around in the "back end" of that costume.

Dear Mark: Finally the Republican House of Representatives has passed legislation that makes sense. The House renewed the ban on plastic guns, which was originally passed in 1988. With new technology, such as 3D printers, homemade plastic guns could be smuggled onto planes and into all kinds of events without detection. I don't think the ban went far enough because we need more gun control. The Democrats should put up a fight in the Senate and use this opportunity to put more teeth into our shoddy gun laws. — Paper Not Plastic

Dear Paper: Like most legislation passed in Washington, the intent might be admirable but the effort is futile. Do you really think that terrorists, criminals and other miscreants are going to let some vote in Washington deter them from trying to perfect a weapon that cannot be detected by metal detectors or x-ray machines? There are some Democrats such as Chuck Schumer and Steve Israel who want to modify the current ban, but only to address the issue of metal parts on the plastic guns themselves.

Although it might be a way to change the subject from Obamacare, don't hold your breath for a fight in the Senate over more gun control laws. With the 2014 elections looming, Senate Democrats already have enough problems to overcome without being seen once again as the anti-Second Amendment party.

Dear Mark is a public platform for your enrichment and entertainment. E-mail your questions to marklevy92@aol.com. To find out more about Mark Levy, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.