Medicare appointee

Babagounj

Strength through joy
We are relieved that President Obama moved ahead on the appointment of Donald M. Berwick M.D. to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Don is a health care leader of extraordinary skill, knowledge, and compassion. He’s the right person for the job at this critical moment. He will make a fundamental difference in improving the way the system works for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and everyone.
Don is a rare individual who has the breadth and depth of experience and understanding to help bring about the improvements in the health system consumers want to see. Don gets that people are frustrated with the fragmentation and high cost of care. And he understands the urgent need to provide doctors and patients with good information about their treatment options so they can make informed decisions.
Our system today rations care in the worst way—based on people’s ability to pay and when insurers deny or limit access to care. Don understands that our health care problems won’t be solved by rationing care but by eliminating wasteful, unproductive spending in a bloated system that too often fails to base treatment decisions on scientific evidence and the best interest for patients.
—Jim Guest, President and CEO of Consumers Union
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
And he had to appoint him now that Congress is in recess, because those damn republicans were going to hold up the hearings ( which were never scheduled to begin with ).
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
He was nominated in April, but no confirmation hearing was scheduled. The appointment during a congressional recess allows him to serve through 2011 without Senate confirmation.
In a White House statement announcing the moves, Obama accused Senate Republicans of stalling dozens of his appointments for political ends.
"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," Obama said. "These recess appointments will allow three extremely qualified candidates to get to work on behalf of the American people right away. With more than 180 nominees still pending before the Senate, it's my hope that my colleagues in Congress will agree to put politics aside and move forward on these vitally important positions."
GOP leaders also denied that they had blocked Berwick's Senate confirmation hearing. Rather, the proceedings were reportedly held up by Democrats because they wanted to avoid a confirmation fight that would allow Republicans to raise Obama's health-care legislation as an issue again in the months leading up to the November midterm elections.
By William Branigin and N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writers
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/17277
ABC calls Obama out

The 44th president of the United States: “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.”​
Not so fast, Barry.​
Jake Tapper looked at who held up the nomination of Dr. Donald “Death Panel” Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.​
And the who was President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party.​
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley requested a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee in April. Democrats stalled.​
From Jake Tapper: “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.”​
So rather than face Congress, Berwind will sneak in through the back door.​
The good news is that appointment will then end on January 3 when a new Congress takes over.​
 

Lue C Fur

Evil member
President Obama has circumvented the Senate and the American public by using a recess appointment to install Dr. Donald Berwick at the helm of the Center for Medicare and Services. It not only confirms the president's disregard for the legitimate legislative process, but also exposes the frightening big government extremism of the president’s health care agenda.

How could the president successfully install such an extreme advocate of rationing and government control of health care? By cheating the process. The Senate didn’t hold a single hearing. Berwick wasn’t filibustered, because Republicans didn’t even have a chance – he was never put on the calender.
Even Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, one of the key architects of Obamacare who steered the law through tough Senate negotiations, broke with the president over the way he sidestepped Congress to get Berwick in, saying: “I'm troubled that, rather than going through the standard nomination process, Dr. Berwick was recess appointed. 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.”
 
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