|
|
|
|
Obama Uses Recess
Appointment to Hide Berwick from Tough Questioning Part One of Three By Dave Andrusko Good evening. A full plate today. Part Two gives the latest on the evidence for the link between induced abortion and an increase in breast cancer risk. Part Three deconstructs the outpourings of some frantic pro-abortionists. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenewstoday.org), we talk more about Don Berwick, about Spain's new abortion law, and the outstanding speech delivered at NRLC 2010 by Steven Mosher. Please send all of your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like join those who are now following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.
President Barack Obama this morning used a recess appointment to install rationing proponent Dr. Donald Berwick as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which runs the nation's massive Medicare and Medicaid programs. It is assumed that as a recess appointment, Berwick will avoid testifying before Congress, a time at which Republicans had promised a thorough vetting of the Harvard Medical School professor who is president and chief executive officer of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Technically, however, the nomination is still pending, and whether there is a hearing depends on Senator Max Baucus (D), who heads the Senate Finance Committee, where Berwick's nomination hearing would take place. The New York Times wrote, "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." Berwick will have all powers of a permanent appointee until the start of the next Congress, in January 2011. As the Boston Globe explained, this "will help the administration to begin implementing the sweeping health care law Obama signed in March with the president's pick at the helm of Medicare." It also closes off one important venue for examining ObamaCare before the mid-term elections in November. National Right to Life, which strongly opposed Berwick's appointment, criticized President Obama's decision not to allow Congress to scrutinize some of the many controversial positions Berwick holds. For example, he is on record as an open advocate of rationing health care. In a June 2009 interview with the journal Biotechnology Healthcare, Berwick maintained, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care--the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. ... We can make a sensible social decision and say, 'Well, at this point, to have access to a particular [new drug or medical intervention] is so expensive that our taxpayers have better use for those funds.'" He also is an unabashed fan of government-imposed rationing abroad. In his 2009 Biotechnology Healthcare interview, Berwick said, "The United States is not the only country struggling with healthcare costs. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom and [its French counterpart] have developed very good and very disciplined ... models for the evaluation of medical treatment from which we ought to learn." On the 50th anniversary of the British National Health Service (NHS) in 1998 anniversary, Berwick wrote, "I am romantic about the NHS. I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at healthcare in my own country." In the essay he adopted the literary device of pretending to give a "looking back" speech on its 75th anniversary in 2023. He said--optimistically from his perspective--"A lot has changed since 1998. ... In the United States ... real reform finally took hold. ... Today American health care is administered under a single, government sponsored insurance scheme, with public accountability not at all dissimilar to the NHS. For the first time in nearly a century, American healthcare costs are falling ... ." Berwick's recess appointment "riles the GOP," as the Globe politely put it. Indeed. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, "The fact that this administration won't allow the man charged with implementing the president's plan to cut $500 billion out of Medicare to testify about his plans for the care of our nation's seniors is truly outrageous." Senator John Barrasso (R-Wy.) said, "This recess appointment is an insult to the American people,'' adding "Dr. Berwick is a self-professed supporter of rationing health care, and he won't even have to explain his views to the American people in a hearing. Once again, President Obama has made a mockery of his pledge to be accountable and transparent.'' Senator Pat Roberts (R-Ks.) said, "Once again, the Obama administration is going behind closed doors out of fear the American people will learn that Dr. Berwick plans to use rationing as a cost-cutting tool to achieve the billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare called for in the health care reform bill.'' For more on NRLC's
criticism of Berwick, why NRLC agreed with Sen. Roberts that
Berwick "was the wrong man, at the wrong time, for the wrong
job," go to
www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/June10/nv060110.html and Please send all of your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. |
