Gotta love politicians and their straightforward way of doing things: "Mr. Obama plans to install Dr. Berwick as a recess appointee, bypassing the traditional confirmation hearing. Such an appointment generally lasts until the end of the Senate's next session."
"The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been without a permanent administrator since 2006, and it will be one of the most instrumental positions for implementing the new health law. The law will place millions more Americans on the Medicaid federal-state insurance program for the poor, and it will cut more than $400 billion over a decade in Medicare payments to health-care providers."
So why do we need a Medicare/Medicaid administrator at all?
Four years without one doesn't seem to have affected these programs ... but of course ... there's always that health law law rolling toward us like a huge boulder ... the one that's going to be so beneficial to 'millions more' in the form of Medicaid, while probably hurting many on Medicare ...
Makes sense, though, in a 'governmental' way ... Seniors are on the downhill side of life, which outweighs the younger population whose future votes are certainly more important.
Replies (15)
Mom,
It is unfortunate that we do not get to appoint someone else to the office of President until 2012.
But we can clip this chippees wings in November.
-- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Tue, Jul 6, 2010, at 10:31 PM
What do you mean "downhill side of life"? The older I get, the more up hill it gets.
Both parties do this. And if the rules are in place to prevent it, some change the rules as in the case of Ted Kennedy replacement.
-- Posted by Old John on Tue, Jul 6, 2010, at 10:33 PM
You know it is possible that wheels AND why not are correct!! I agree with both of you!! You have made my day, thank you!
-- Posted by agape on Tue, Jul 6, 2010, at 10:54 PM
It's never good to bypass the Senate on these things. Then again, what good has that millionair's club done? But many have done recess appointments. There's usually a reason which we don't find out till it's too late. Then the reasoning is, "well he/she's been in that position this long, so we might as well leave things alone." Wheels, OJ and why not are all correct.
-- Posted by Knoblickian on Wed, Jul 7, 2010, at 7:44 AM
Given the number of qualified candidates who've been held up by the GOP's gutter politics, this is a wise and needed move by the president.
-- Posted by ColumbiaCowboy on Wed, Jul 7, 2010, at 7:58 AM
...gutter politics. Now there's an oxymoron.
-- Posted by blogbudsman on Wed, Jul 7, 2010, at 12:03 PM
"What do you mean "downhill side of life"? The older I get, the more up hill it gets." Well, there is that, Old J. As Wheels knows, the older I get, the more difficult it is to even get dressed some days.
"Given the number of qualified candidates ..." Ah, you mean like, Kagan?
And of course ... both parties do the same ... it's The American Way.
-- Posted by gurusmom on Wed, Jul 7, 2010, at 5:08 PM
Columbia, Is that where we got the term "Borked"?
-- Posted by Old John on Wed, Jul 7, 2010, at 5:27 PM
CC you need to give it up. It's not working for you. You've been betrayed again. Sucker!
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.
-- Posted by blogbudsman on Thu, Jul 8, 2010, at 5:25 AM
Blog, Shows to go you. The stupid repubicans vow transparancy and it comes back to bite them. The democrats vow transparancy and hide behind it, accusing the other side for what they are doing.
-- Posted by Old John on Thu, Jul 8, 2010, at 8:44 PM
"As a matter of politics, the president's choice of Berwick was, well, the polite word would be bold. The less polite word: boneheaded. Administration officials argue that Republicans would have seized on any nominee as an opportunity to re-litigate the health care debate. But Berwick offered opponents a loaded gun with his talk about rationing, his discussion of health reform as a matter of redistributing wealth, and his effusive praise for the British system. If the president wanted to buy a fight like this, he ought to have been better prepared to wage it.
And as a matter of good government, the president's move to snub the Senate and install Berwick by recess appointment was outrageous... A recess appointment should be a last step in cases of egregious delay, not one of the first. That standard was nowhere near met in Berwick's case. Berwick was nominated to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 19, less than three months ago. He had not yet had a hearing. His committee vetting wasn't complete."
-- Posted by blogbudsman on Mon, Jul 12, 2010, at 6:43 AM
Shame on that bad old President Obama! Why it's unethical, it's immoral, why it's probably unconstitutional! But then again, there is this.
As of October 31, 2008, President Bush had made 171 recess appointments.
President William J. Clinton, in comparison, made a total of 139 recess appointments
during the course of his presidency. Of President Bush's 171 recess appointments,
99 were to full-time positions, and the remaining 72 were to part-time positions.
Thirty were made during recesses between Congresses or between sessions of
Congress (intersession recess appointments). The remaining 141 were made during
recesses within sessions of Congress (intrasession recess appointments). The
duration of the 24 recesses during which President Bush made recess appointments
ranged from 10 to 47 days. The average (mean) duration of these recesses was 25
days, and the median duration was 26 days.
-- Posted by Wilbur Right on Mon, Jul 12, 2010, at 10:28 AM
wrcactus - I don't believe anyone is condemning recess appointments per se. Read this again:
And as a matter of good government, the president's move to snub the Senate and install Berwick by recess appointment was outrageous... A recess appointment should be a last step in cases of egregious delay, not one of the first. That standard was nowhere near met in Berwick's case. Berwick was nominated to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 19, less than three months ago. He had not yet had a hearing. His committee vetting wasn't complete."
- and this column was from a liberal commentator crying about the negative affect this move might have on Democrats running for office.
However, it fits the current administrations M.O.:
"The vaunted Demosthenes of the campaign trail disappeared literally upon inauguration. He hasn't been able to convince anyone of anything. He only succeeds when he acts purely as a bully, muscling through legislation."
-- Posted by blogbudsman on Mon, Jul 12, 2010, at 11:09 AM
I just want to know, how much are they going to be paying this guy?
-- Posted by Skeptic1 on Mon, Jul 12, 2010, at 1:19 PM
"If the American people want the health-care world Dr. Berwick wishes to give them, that's their choice. But they must be given that choice."
Henninger further writes:
Barack Obama's incredible "recess appointment" of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is probably the most significant domestic-policy personnel decision in a generation. It is more important to the direction of the country than Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court.
The court's decisions are subject to the tempering influence of nine competing minds. Dr. Berwick would direct an agency that has a budget bigger than the Pentagon. Decisions by the CMS shape American medicine.
Dr. Berwick's ideas on the design and purpose of the U.S. system of medicine aren't merely about "change." They would be revolutionary.
One may agree with these views or not, but for the president to tell the American people they have to simply accept this through anything so flaccid as a recess appointment is beyond outrageous. It isn't acceptable.
-- Posted by blogbudsman on Fri, Jul 16, 2010, at 5:18 AM
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704862404575351720617184414.html
Gotta love politicians and their straightforward way of doing things: "Mr. Obama plans to install Dr. Berwick as a recess appointee, bypassing the traditional confirmation hearing. Such an appointment generally lasts until the end of the Senate's next session."
"The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been without a permanent administrator since 2006, and it will be one of the most instrumental positions for implementing the new health law. The law will place millions more Americans on the Medicaid federal-state insurance program for the poor, and it will cut more than $400 billion over a decade in Medicare payments to health-care providers."
So why do we need a Medicare/Medicaid administrator at all?
Four years without one doesn't seem to have affected these programs ... but of course ... there's always that health law law rolling toward us like a huge boulder ... the one that's going to be so beneficial to 'millions more' in the form of Medicaid, while probably hurting many on Medicare ...
Makes sense, though, in a 'governmental' way ... Seniors are on the downhill side of life, which outweighs the younger population whose future votes are certainly more important.
Replies (15)