The GOP IS understandably unhappy with Obama’s recess appointment of Donald Berwick to the post of CMS administrator without so much as a committee hearing . And they are holding up other Obama appointments in the Senate until Dr. Berwick appears before them.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) blocked a Democratic request Wednesday evening to advance two of President Obama’s nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The Senator does a good job of summing up the real reason Obama decided to sneak Berwick past the normal confirmation process:
The mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care was evidently reason enough for this Administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Senator Charles Grassley sent a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (which normally approves nominations for this CMS post) demanding a hearing in which Republicans can ask Berwick a few questions about his public statements on rationing and other health care issues:
We would request that the committee call a hearing as soon as possible so that the President’s recess appointment does not result in circumventing the open public review that should take place for a nomination of such importance.
Fat chance. The White House and its congressional accomplices have no intention of allowing Berwick to answer questions about his views on health rationing, wealth redistribution, or his various and sundry conflicts of interest. Avoiding such questions was the purpose of the recess appointment.
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