Team O Arrogance: Even Dem Sen. Baucus Speaks Out Against Obama Skirting Past Congress with Non-Vetted “Health Care Czar” Appointee, Radical Donald Berwick (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 7, 2010
Another radical Team O czar, appointed to circumvent Congress and spread the socialist misery with our government-mandated health care…
THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT.
From The Hill, Dem Baucus joins GOP in blasting Obama CMS recess appointment:
Echoing Republicans, 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).
“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,” Baucus said in a statement.
Berwick had not been vetted by the Finance panel, nor had Baucus scheduled a hearing to examine the nominee.
Baucus’s office did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Baucus is the first Democrat to criticize the recess appointment, which Republicans have blasted.
“As if shoving a trillion-dollar government takeover of healthcare down the throat of a disapproving American public wasn’t enough, apparently the Obama administration intends to arrogantly circumvent the American people yet again by recess-appointing one of the most prominent advocates of rationed healthcare to implement their national plan,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
McConnell criticized Democrats for not holding a confirmation hearing for Berwick, and suggested the party was trying to avoid tough questions about the healthcare reform law.
“Democrats haven’t scheduled so much as a committee hearing for Donald Berwick, but the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their healthcare is evidently reason enough for this administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny.”
Berwick, a Harvard pediatrician and founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, is a revered figure within the healthcare community, winning the endorsement of a long list of stakeholders, including providers, insurers, patient advocates, labor groups and businesses. But his 2008 praise of Britain’s nationalized healthcare system has riled a number of Senate Republicans in opposition to his nomination. The critics say that he would ration care in the name of cutting costs — and threaten the well-being of seniors as a result.
In a statement released Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama blamed Republicans for holding up the appointment of Berwick and two others filled as recess appointments. Obama did not offer a direct comment on Berwick.
From Gateway Pundit, Obama Appoints Radical Communist Pal to Head Medicare & Medicaid (Video):
Barack Obama appointed another communist, Donald Berwick, to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today. The president sidestepped a senate hearing by appointing this radical during a Congressional recess.
An excerpt from a 2008 speech by Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speaking to a British audience about why he favors government-run health care.
Socialist Donald Berwick on Redistributing Wealth | 2008 Speech
From a May 12th post by Ben Domenech at RedState, Obama Nominee Donald Berwick’s Radical Agenda:
President Obama’s nomination of Donald Berwick as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is a gathering far less attention than a certain other nominee — but it will be getting more attention in the weeks to come, given his particularly radical agenda when it comes to health policy.
Berwick is a leading Ivy League academic and technocrat – he’s graduated from Harvard not once, but three times – and is the founder of a Cambridge-based think-tank, the Institute for Health Care Improvement. Yet the job of running CMS is hardly the same as running a small think tank or talking in broad terms about the nature of health care – CMS is essentially the world’s second largest insurance company after the United Kingdom’s NHS, covering over 98 million people and overseeing roughly $800 billion annually in taxpayer-funded health care expenditures.
Berwick is a great fan of the NHS, and worked as a consultant on the project under Tony Blair. Berwick will have the opportunity to apply the ideas he gained through that experience with the power of the CMS position, which means that his nomination holds massive ramifications for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, hospitals and doctors and, under Obama’s law, all Americans.
Related:
Prison Planet: Obama’s New Health Care Czar: “We Must Redistribute Wealth”
Sister Toldjah: Rationing proponent to head Medicare/Medicaid board thanks to recess appt
The Foundry, Heritage Foundation: Morning Bell: The Rationer-in-Chief
New York Times: Study Points to Health Law’s Penalties
Legal Insurrection: Health Care Cost Report Deliberately Held Back? Update: Denial. and The Numbers Were A Lie All Along: and He Who Controls The Health System, Controls “Information”
Motor City Times: News Round Up: China Flexes Muscles At Economic Summit, Running Away From Obama & Repealing Heath Care
Frugal Café Blog Zone: New ObamaCare Penalty Discovered: Employers Will Be Fined if Health Care Is Considered Unaffordable by Gov’t and What Now? Obama Media & Team Obama Failed to Report Automatic Paycheck Deduction Hidden in ObamaCare Health Bill (video) and Congress Suddenly, Literally Faced with Crappy ObamaCare: “Unintentional” Language in Bill May Force Congressional Members to Give Up Their Own Platinum Packages & Be Part of the American Public and ObamaCare “Fine Print” Nightmare Continues: Now 60 Doctor-owned Hospitals Canceled Because of Democrats’ New Oppressive Health Law, Thousands of Jobs Killed and No Surprise Here: Obama’s Promises Missing from Health Care Bill
Patterico’s Pontifications: Congress May Have “Unintentionally” Lost Their Current Coverage by Voting for ObamaCare — What Do the “Intentionalists” Have to Say About That?
GayPatriot: Obamacare means longer waits in emergency rooms
On My Watch — The Writings of SamHenry: Who Do we Trust Now? True Cost of Government Health Care Suppressed in Two Administrations
Radio Vice Online: Obamacare…more unintended consequences
City on a Hill Political Observer: Rob Andrews on healthcare: “We didn’t explain it well”
Nice Deb: Media Narrative Takes Another Hit: Poll Shows 4 In 10 Tea Partiers Are Dems Or Independents
Gateway Pundit: GOP Moves to Repeal Obamacare and Commie Official: Without the Communist Party, Obama’s OFA Group Could Have Easily Disbanded and Now We Know… Obamacare Includes 3.8% Tax On Home Sales For All Americans …Update: Maybe Not and The “Giddy” Is Gone… Dem’s Health Care Plan Will Cost Taxpayers BILLIONS More Than Promised (Video) and State-run media comes clean… and First State Opts Out of Abortion Funding in Dem’s Nationalized Health Care Bill and Crazy. Obama Says Health Care Law Already Helps Millions in US
Uncommon Knowledge, Big Government: US Taxpayers Pay for Germany’s Socialized Medicine – and Other Terrible News
Mcnorman’s Weblog: Baffled by Health Plan? So Is Congress
Market Wire, Milken Institute: D.C.’s Failure to Contain Medical Costs Could Deplete Gains of Middle-Class, According to Stephen Nyce and Sylvester Schieber in Latest Milken Institute Review
FOX News: Report: Health Overhaul Will Increase Nation’s Tab
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Team O Arrogance: Even Dem Sen. Baucus Speaks Out Against Obama ……