C-O-W-A-R-D-S
The Obama White House policy experts are all for health care cost-controls. They just don’t want to have to defend themselves in any public forum under oath — especially when the people in charge of allocating scarce resources have openly championed government-run health care as a wealth redistribution Trojan Horse overseas.
In his usual mode of circumvention, President Obama is bypassing the Senate and has recess-appointed Dr. Don (“health care is a human right/excellent health care is by definition, redistributional“) Berwick to head the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Fox News reported on the gambit late Tuesday night:
President Obama intends to bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid, the White House announced Tuesday — filling the job while Congress is in recess to get around Republican opposition that threatened to derail Berwick’s confirmation.
Berwick’s supporters say he is the right man in the right place at the right time. But his opponents have lined up against him. They say that while he may be a the highly respected doctor, he is also an outspoken proponent of the British health care system, which they say is all wrong for Americans.
“This recess appointment is an insult to the American people,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Tuesday night. “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 Congressional hearing.”
…By appointing Berwick now, while Congress is out of session for the July 4 holiday break, Berwick can assume the post of administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services without undergoing confirmation hearings in the Senate. Democrats want to avoid a nasty confirmation fight that could reopen the health care debate. Berwick was nominated in April but no confirmation hearing had been scheduled.
Behold the cowardice of convictionlessness.
More on the recess appointment here.
***
Flashback:
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Obama Chief of Staff: No More Compromise on Contraceptive Mandate
February 12, 2012 04:26 PM by Doug Powers
0 Comments
Choosing Life and Beating the Odds
February 11, 2012 11:50 AM by Doug Powers
32 CommentsObama’s fraudulent abortion mandate “accommodation” Updated: Prez condemns “cynical” opposition
February 10, 2012 10:05 AM by Michelle Malkin
244 Comments‘To Stop the Multiplication of the Unfit’
February 10, 2012 09:06 AM by Michelle Malkin
181 CommentsNancy Pelosi Explains Why Obama Flip-Flopped on Super PACs
February 9, 2012 10:08 PM by Doug Powers
50 Comments
Report: Solyndra Sold Assets Cheap to Entity with Close Ties to Investors
February 9, 2012 10:08 AM by Doug Powers
49 CommentsFormer Democrat Rep. Regrets Vote for Obamacare Due to Contraceptive Coverage
February 7, 2012 03:40 PM by Doug Powers
75 Comments
How to Make a Liberal Politician Stand Up Against Intrusive Government
February 6, 2012 04:28 PM by Doug Powers
95 Comments
Middle Class Payroll Tax Cut Extension Comes Courtesy of Mortgage Fees on Home Buyers
February 6, 2012 01:36 PM by Doug Powers
35 Comments
Categories: Barack Obama,Health care
Patterico
» NYT hails the safety net: Poor hardest hitAmSpecBlog
» Weekend Political Wrap-UpThe Hill
» Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine voteJustOneMinute
» I Guess I'm Still Stuck On StupidGateway Pundit
» White House Says They Won’t Budge on HHS Birth Control Mandate: “Our Position Is Clear” (Video)Gateway Pundit
» Sarah Palin on HBO Palin Movie: I’ve Created More Impersonators Than Obama’s Created Jobs (Video)
***
I hope this Marxist is subject to the same 1 year limit on recess appointments–like John Bolton was.
***
Vote out these clowns in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
***
John Bibb
***
I think we all need to start sending daily emails to the white house with a very simple seven word message,
Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?”
“…making tough choices and planning [the] supply…”.
aka “Death Panels”
So today, as a disabled vet, I went to my local government run health care facility for another appointment. This appointment happened only because I have been complaining of a serious problem for over three years….a problem that is deemed service connected by my friendly government run health care facility.
I had been blown off for two years with referrals to physical therapy.
There have been four surgeries so there is SOME history.
Today, I was told my knee would have to fall apart enough to warrant knee replacement surgery before they would do anything more. They refused to do anything further other than refer me to more PT.
….this after waiting over three weeks to see whether I had cancer. I had the tests….I just could not get the results. Initial results show tumors. Yes I was more than a little worried lately. Yes the person providing “treatment” would not return my call, yes her secretary was VERY snotty when I called and asked what was planned after waiting three weeks.
….this after waiting over three weeks to hear the results of a heart monitor test, which shows serious problems, but I cannot get anyone to say what they are other than they want to repeat tests….that have been repeated for over three years.
Yes I have contacted politicians. No they don’t care, unless it’s close to their reelection.
Yes I have contacted officials in the hospital, but they refuse to return my call.
At what point do people wake up and realize the above treatment is what they will get routinely? or consider to be good care?
These are the same nitwits who floated the idea that we pay for our own medical care if injured on the battlefield.
Those of us who have had exposure to the military medical system as retirees knew what was coming with Obamacare and tried to warn people, but it’s too late now. We’ll all be getting the same kind of care you’re getting – as little as possible while they wait for us to die.
It’s only good through the end of the current Congress – i.e. the end of the year, legally, but with this bunch they may try to just ignore that little legal nicety.
Why are the Idiots in Congress not pulling the same stunts that they did with Bush and never having a recess long enough for this to happen by having one member bring a session to order, close it and go home? They can’t complain if they are too stupid or too lazy to prevent this from happening, especially when they knew it was comming.
There already exists a rationing mechanism that is fairer than any other – it’s called capitalism.
Government is the one who keeps messing the system up with their “rules”. They want to play favorites with their chosen class of people (generally with the intent of gaining or retaining power).
The general mantra of government – take from the productive, give to the unproductive
The racism is getting a little heavy in the Obowma regime. It’s stench is now spreading everywhere. Why does the Obowma regime hate white people so much?
Does Obowma think the USA supports NAZI Eugenics all of a sudden?
BTW, Health care is not a right, if it were why would people be denied health care by Obowma regime bureaucrats.
I wonder how many doctors agree with this guy when his ideas put them under the governments thumb completely.I am sure they will enjoy being told when to work and how much money they will make.
President Oblame-a rigs another appointment. Nothing new here. . .move on.
.
Because the “leadership” is from the same party, and as in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the party is all-important. (Should I have capitalized “party”? Uh, oh.) Suits their agenda (expand government, and never mind what the masses, er, people, want).
August 3rd Missourians vote and begin the fight against ObamaCare.
Here is a description of one of my many health care experiences in Canada versus the U.S.
Upon hurting my throat and having trouble swallowing/breathing, I went to my family doctor in Canada to have her check it out. She used a stethoscope, listened to my breathing and told me it sounded normal. She said that if I expereienced futher problems, to go to the ER.
A few days later, I went to the ER and I was only able to see the general doctor in the ER, no ENT was availabe. I asked to see an ENT, but was refused. I was not scoped with a camera, doctor simply looked at the back of my upper throat (not lower throat), told me it was fine, gave me an x-ray which he said looked fine and tried to send me home.
When I complained to him that my skin on my upper chest, just below my throat was red and discoloured, he replied that the colour was within the range of normal. When I replied that the colour was not normal, he said yes it was.
I was sent home without any diagnosis, no medication, no benefit.
When I went to America to see an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor), I paid $765 and was able to get an appointment in 20 days with one of the best ENT specialists in the world.
He used a nasal endoscopy (long black tube with a camera and a light on the end) to look up my nose and down my throat. He told me that I had a swollen and red throat and that it was more narrow than normal, which likely accounted for my trouble swallowing and breathing, for which I was there to see him about. He suggested a sleep-apnea study and also wrote me two prescriptions to try in the meantime. He opened his office on Christmas eve day to see me an about 40 other paitents.
Because they are crapweasels and DC needs an enema.
Someone should make and sell shirts that say DC needs an enema. In my case, Ottawa needs an enema.
I expect the Senate Dems wanted this, so they would not have to take another controverial vote on health care before the election.
Typical. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Let’s see if he can redistribute all the corruption and fraud in Medicaid—or is that the redistribution he thinks is ok, to rob the taxpayer to pay for the welfare-nannies on their couches.
If it looks like a Marxist, acts like a Marxist, walk and talks like a Marxist, it probably is a Marxist. These people have been working in our midst to destabilize the country for generations and now is is up to us to deal with them. They have to be driven from power as soon as possible and then we have to install Constitutional reforms to limit the size of government (15% of GDP), mandate a balanced budget, and block the ability of government to take equity stakes in private enterprise. These changes are doable and necessary to blunt tyranny such as we are facing now.
Cut off their money supply and their ability to impose their power on private property, and they are effectively neutered. Driving them from “public” education via pro-American and ideologically neutral rules would be nice too. But we must act aggressively now or we are cooked. We are at the proverbial tipping point.
That’s right and why should he? The doctor will not see you in the Gulag.
Thanks, GladzK, for the reminder.
Heck, the health care model of the British is not even right for the Brits, why would it be right for the US?
What is significant is not the recess appointment, but the recess appointment without even submitting his name to the Senate for consideration.
Who was it prior to the inaguration who made the comment about Obama will “rule?” Obama would abolish Congress tomorrow if he could.
Dr. Berwick speaks of “rights” in relation to health care. As everybody on this forum knows, any “right” granted by the state can be taken away with the stroke of a pen (…you are too fat…you are too old…you are too conservative).
I demand my God-given rights and nothing more. Your state-given rights aren’t worth the paper(2000 pages at that) they are written on.
Socialism has a violent history. Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics murdered 7 to 10 million Ukrainians by starving them to death in what was called the Holodomor. Hitler’s National Socialists systematically executed 6 million Jews. Mao’s Peoples Republic ushered in the death of over 70 million Chinese thanks to its great leap forward. Lesser socialist like Pol Pot and Kim Jong-Il, killed for the glorious utilitarian purposes of the state. Today’s most benign forms of socialism still have a utilitarian and eugenic tinge when it comes to the treatment of the aged, infirmed and children yet to be.
Obama and the Democrats are progressives. Eugenics and attacks on religion are part of their philosophy.
On July 7th, 2010 at 10:46 am, publiuswarmac9999 said: Hitler’s National Socialists systematically executed 6 million Jews.
It may be decent to remember that they killed seven million other people in the concentration camps in addition to just the six million Jewish people put to death in those camps. The full extent of the horrors perpetrated should be looked at IMHO and not restricted to what was in total, less than half of those killed. While their losses were certainly more than simply tragic, the other seven million people should be remembered too.
Just saying … not arguing.
This has always rubbed me the wrong way, too.
The Jews were just killed for being Jews. Many of the non-Jews were killed because they stood up against the Nazi’s, including many who were killed for trying to save Jews and other ‘undesirables’ from the Nazi’s.
I weep for all suffering of the innocent, but I weep most for the heroes who died not even knowing if their sacrifice was for nothing, brutalized and killed because they refused to submit to evil.
You see the same thing happening today throughout the Muslim world, and more and more even in the West. Anyone who refuses to submit to the moon god cult is marked for death.
I hate to say it, but I can’t think of one single government in the world today that doesn’t.
Someone please give me some faith that somewhere there is a government that is not corrupt!
Speaking of cowards, and way off topic, but an ‘independent’ investigation has determined that the ‘scientists’ at the Climate Research Unit were not cooking the data as their emails suggested:
What a surprise.
Until somebody stomps, and I MEAN stomps them. GOP? Nah, not hardly.
There’s no such animal. All government is corrupt by the nature of what it is: a mechanism for coersion by force. The bigger it gets, the more corrupt it must become.
That is why government must always be sharply limited to only its basic and necessary functions such as coercing us to not commit crimes and coercing other countries into leaving us alone.
I guess Maobama has too many failures to his credit to have wanted to risk another by having him go through a approval process
He is TEH WON…he don’t need no stinkin’ approval process.
We are not going to win if the so-called “Patriot” organizations that have sprung up everywhere, including the Tea Party itself, are allowed to become just another money and power grab. Changing the faces in DC without changing the basic mentality is an exercise in futility.
This defines the problem spot-on….please read:
http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/07/07/enough-with-the-profit-and-power-driven-patriots/
BTW, that is because the most corrupt and corruptible people tend to be attracted to government ‘service,’ since corrupt people tend to love the idea of forcing people to do what they want them to do instead of having to persuade them it’s in their interest to do it.
In the real world if you want someone to buy a widget or a health care plan, you lower the price and/or improve the service. In government you just pass a law forcing them to buy it.
Corrupt people love that.
Dr. Mengele reincarnated, I presume.
And where are our vaunted Republican statesmen to voice outrage over this abridgement of Constitutional process?
Where is our little mountain flower to tell us we are all buffoons for not embracing this carp? Is she stuck above the treeline in the Alps again?
This piece of work makes Dr. Jack Kevorkian look like Mother Theresa.
Die Weisse Angel for a New Socialist Amerika.
Do these even exist anymore?
Only, if to buy, it must be funnelled through and/or regulated by the appropriate government bureau, so it can get a piece of the action. Corrupt peope truly love that!
Add the Workman Comp boards at the States. I have a torn cartilage and all they would allow was a steroid shot when my doctor wanted surgery. Even I, as a Engineering Type, know a shot is not going to repair a cartilage.
The problem with socialism, that the ones wanting it don’t understand, is that if all the incentives are removed, then there is no progress, or ambition. Why try harder for no reward?
Impeach obama.
They promised to spend less money treating more people and expect us to believe we will all get all the medical treatment we need.Do the math.
Welcome to the Marxist health care where you get all the treatment the government wants to provide…
It’s any time somebody else is paying for it. Your interest is your health. Their interest is minimizing the bill.
“Impeach Obama?”
Can you explain the impeachment process? What is the likelihood of that happening? Seriously, do people not know how that works?