Obama Bypasses Dem Run Senate To Name Health Offficial

[red states rule]

Obama is doing this because this guy is a big supporter of rationed health care, higher taxes to pay for government run healhtcare, and Obama knows this would come out in confirmation hearings

More hope and chnage headed your way folks







WASHINGTON — President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday.

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said the “recess appointment” was needed to carry out the new health care law. The law calls for huge changes in the two programs, which together insure nearly one-third of all Americans.

Mr. Pfeiffer said the president would appoint Dr. Berwick on Wednesday. Mr. Obama decided to act because “many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points,” Mr. Pfeiffer said.

As a recess appointee, Dr. Berwick will have all the powers of a permanent appointee. But under the Constitution, his appointment will expire at the end of the next session of Congress, in late 2011.

In April, Mr. Obama nominated Dr. Berwick to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency has been without a permanent administrator since October 2006.

The recess appointment was somewhat unusual because the Senate is in recess for less than two weeks and senators were still waiting for Dr. Berwick to submit responses to some of their requests for information. No confirmation hearing has been held or scheduled.

Although hospital executives who have worked with Dr. Berwick describe him as a visionary, inspiring leader, he would have faced a long, difficult struggle to win Senate confirmation.

The president’s action will give the administration a strong voice to defend provisions of the new law that have come under almost daily attack from Republicans in Congress and in political campaigns around the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/health/policy/07recess.html?_r=3&hp

[red states rule]

The NY Times gave glowing coverage to Obama's guy - now lets read what Mr Berwick said about the British healthcare system and how they ration care - something the NY Times ignored




Donald Berwick is the Obama appointment to run the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is the largest entity in the Federal Government health care system costing nearly $1 trillion. The appointment of Berwick to this high position should raise many eyebrows.

Berwick is an outspoken supporter of the British National Health Service, the state-run Health Care that the British citizens have been enduring since 1948. The British system imposes rationing on its paying patients, an idea that Berwick praises.

While many were criticized for suggesting that rationing would happen in America if ObamaCare came to pass, the people that Obama is putting in place openly support such schemes. After all, personnel is policy, and Berwick has stated that “the decision is not whether or not we will ration care, the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”

When one looks at the British National Health Service, the words of Berwick usually do not come to mind. As he said, “I am romantic about the National Health Service, I love it.” But what about the people that have fallen victim to this system? Does he love that?

For instance, would Berwick want this to happen in America, where he says we need the “Holy Grail of universal coverage.”? Under the National Health Service in Britain, the Care Quality Commission discovered that filthy wards and lack of leadership led to 400 patient deaths annually at Basildon and Thurrock University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust. Surely this is not what Berwick has in mind.

Perhaps it is this.

In May, the National Health Service announced that due to cash shortages, they would begin rationing treatments for common children’s conditions. In our own country, we currently have no cash for anything. We wonder what Berwick has to say about this? Is this something he would stand for?

But there is more.

Under the same National Health Service system that Berwick loves, the NHS level of care fell below even third world standards. Where is the outcry from Berwick? Something is wrong with Berwick if this system is ideal—even above our current one.

One can imagine from the British examples what we will soon face in our own country. Berwick will soon be empowered to deny basic care to your grandparents or even yourself should he deem it unnecessary. The reality of this is not farfetched. He has said it himself that he will ration your care.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2536522/posts

[Monkeybone]

he also says how you need to redistrbute the wealth from the rich to get what you need. Classy guy.

and this any big surprise? slip it in when you can't protest. I am surpirse that they can't do something and they have to wait until the next session

[stephanie]

Obama=dictator in Chief.

Nice going American people.:slap:

[bullypulpit]

It's called a recess appointment Red. And as far as the Democrats running the Senate, when a 60 vote majority is required to invoke cloture on even procedural votes in the Senate, the MINORITY...as in the GOP...runs the show. ANd given the level of ass-hattery, douche-baggery and outright obstructionism the GOP has been engaging in since Obama was elected, it's amazing that ANY legislation has made it through the Senate.

[darin]

actually, it's SAD any legislation has made it thru the senate. Frankly, I can't recall ONE GOOD THING the senate has done since January. Most of the more-visible legislation has been HORRIBLE for the country - it's as if they are willfully driving the country into ruin - forcing the middle-class and poorer folk towards MORE poverty, while securing for them and their big-money constiuants even greater power and wealth. It's immoral...it's evil.

[red states rule]

It's called a recess appointment Red. And as far as the Democrats running the Senate, when a 60 vote majority is required to invoke cloture on even procedural votes in the Senate, the MINORITY...as in the GOP...runs the show. ANd given the level of ass-hattery, douche-baggery and outright obstructionism the GOP has been engaging in since Obama was elected, it's amazing that ANY legislation has made it through the Senate.

Dems are also upset over Obama's trick BP




Baucus blasts White House for recess appointment of Berwick
By Mike Lillis - 07/07/10 11:18 AM ET


Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration for sidestepping Congress to install Donald Berwick atop the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Echoing the concerns of some Republicans on that panel, Baucus called Congress’s role in the appointment process an “essential” check on executive power.

“I’m troubled that, rather than going through the standard nomination process, Dr. Berwick was recess appointed,” Baucus said in a statement.

“Senate confirmation of presidential appointees is an essential process prescribed by the Constitution that serves as a check on executive power and protects Montanans and all Americans by ensuring that crucial questions are asked of the nominee — and answered.”

Berwick had not been vetted by the Finance panel, nor had Baucus scheduled a hearing to examine the nominee.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/107453-baucus-blasts-white-house-for-recess-appointment-of-berwick





What will you say now BP - that Max is not a "real" Democrat? He is a racist who can't accept the fact a black man is President?

You say that about anyone who opposes your guy Obama so why should Max be any different?


Obama knws the clock is ticking and Dems wil get their political ass kicked in November. So ram thru as much of his social agenda as possible while the economy tanks - and screw the voters who are too stupid to understand his genius and how he is transforming America into a liberal utopia

[red states rule]

BTW BP, perhaps Obama did NOT want Mr Berwick's comments discussed and brought out in the open




President Obama Attacks Congress for Delaying His Nominees -- Is He Right?


In announcing the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- and two other nominees -- today President Obama said in a statement that “It’s unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes.”

That claim is reasonably true for the other two nominees given recess appointments today.

Republicans long objected to the nomination of Philip Coyle, now the associate director for National Security and International Affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, because of Coyle's opposition to missile defense.

The nomination of Joshua Gotbaum, now the director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, had also been held up.

Unmentioned by the president: the senator who had put a hold on Gotbaum’s nomination was Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who put a hold on Gotbaum’s nomination in May because of the way Gotbaum’s former employer Delphi Corp. dealt with pensioned former employees.

But it’s not the case with Berwick, whose recess appointment is getting most of the attention.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., echoed the president's suggestion, saying that “Republican lockstep stalling of Don’s nomination was a case study in cynicism and one awful example of how not to govern.”

But Republicans were not delaying or stalling Berwick’s nomination.

Indeed, they were eager for his hearing, hoping to assail Berwick’s past statements about health care rationing and his praise for the British health care system.

“The nomination hasn’t been held up by Republicans in Congress and to say otherwise is misleading,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which would have held Berwick’s hearing.

Grassley said that he “requested that a hearing take place two weeks ago, before this recess.”

Berwick’s nomination was sent to the Senate in April, and his hearing had not been scheduled because he was participating in the “standard vetting process,” a Democratic aide on the Senate Finance Committee told ABC News.

But speaking not for attribution, Democratic officials say that neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., nor Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, were eager for an ugly confirmation fight four months before the midterm elections.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/07/president-obama-attacks-congress-for-delaying-his-nominees-is-he-right.html

[red states rule]

I guess the facts got to be to much for BP - and as usal - he bacame "bored" and ran away from another thread

Here is video on Obama's guy saying "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional,"

But Obama does not want anyone to question him on this and other comments he has made over the years


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[red states rule]

It's called a recess appointment Red. And as far as the Democrats running the Senate, when a 60 vote majority is required to invoke cloture on even procedural votes in the Senate, the MINORITY...as in the GOP...runs the show. ANd given the level of ass-hattery, douche-baggery and outright obstructionism the GOP has been engaging in since Obama was elected, it's amazing that ANY legislation has made it through the Senate.

BP now it is clear as to why Obama did NOT want a public hearing on this guy

Check out what he has said about healthcare in America - even though you probably agree with these statements




Let's look, then, at what President Obama won't let the American electorate hear Dr. Berwick say in front of a committee of Congress. These excerpts are from past speeches and articles by Dr. Berwick:

"I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do."

"You cap your health care budget, and you make the political and economic choices you need to make to keep affordability within reach."

"Please don't put your faith in market forces. It's a popular idea: that Adam Smith's invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can."

"Indeed, the Holy Grail of universal coverage in the United States may remain out of reach unless, through rational collective action overriding some individual self-interest, we can reduce per capita costs."

"It may therefore be necessary to set a legislative target for the growth of spending at 1.5 percentage points below currently projected increases and to grant the federal government the authority to reduce updates in Medicare fees if the target is exceeded."

"About 8% of GDP is plenty for 'best known' care."

"A progressive policy regime will control and rationalize financing—control supply."

"The unaided human mind, and the acts of the individual, cannot assure excellence. Health care is a system, and its performance is a systemic property."

"Health care is a common good—single payer, speaking and buying for the common good."

"And it's important also to make health a human right because the main health determinants are not health care but sanitation, nutrition, housing, social justice, employment, and the like."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703792704575367020548324914.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

[red states rule]

he also says how you need to redistrbute the wealth from the rich to get what you need. Classy guy.

and this any big surprise? slip it in when you can't protest. I am surpirse that they can't do something and they have to wait until the next session

Mr Berwick will not have to deal with Obamacare - he is set for life






Donald Berwick, recess-appointed by President Obama to head Medicare and Medicaid, is a well-known advocate of health care rationing and admirer of Britain's National Health Service. Rising health costs and limited resources "require decisions about who will have access to care and the extent of their coverage," Berwick wrote in 1999. Last year, he said, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." Of the NHS, Berwick says simply, "I love it," adding that it is "one of the great human health care endeavors on earth."

As it turns out, Berwick himself does not have to deal with the anxieties created by limited access to care and the extent of coverage. In a special benefit conferred on him by the board of directors of the Institute for Health Care Improvement, a nonprofit health care charitable organization he created and which he served as chief executive officer, Berwick and his wife will have health coverage "from retirement until death."

The provision is deep inside a 2009 audit report on the nonprofit's finances. On page 17 of that document, there is a paragraph headlined "Post Retirement Health Benefits":

During fiscal year 2003, the Institute created a postretirement health benefit plan for its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It provides the CEO and his spouse medical insurance from retirement until death. The present value of the estimated cost of this benefit is approximately $120,000, which is being accrued over the CEO's estimated remaining service period. The amount expensed by the Institute for the years ended 2009 and 2008 related to this liability was approximately $12,000 and $17,000, respectively. At 2009 and 2008, approximately $84,000 and $72,000, respectively, was included in accounts payable and accrued expenses.

Berwick was the CEO in question; under the provision, he and his wife will be covered for the rest of their lives -- a benefit that was on top of the $2.3 million in compensation the nonprofit gave Berwick in 2008, the $637,006 in compensation he received in 2007, and the $585,008 he received in 2006

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/In-special-deal-charity-gives-rationing-advocate-Berwick-health-coverage-for-life-98403369.html