New Medicare Director Supports Rationing

President Obama's choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will have enormous influence over the future of health care in America. With a budget larger than the Department of Defense, CMS is one of the key government agencies tasked with implementing many significant aspects of the unpopular government health care takeover. Yet the person appointed to this crucial position will now take office without undergoing a single hearing.

The White House announced last week that it would install Harvard professor Donald Berwick as CMS director via recess appointment. Under the recess appointment process, presidential nominees appointed while Congress is not in session can take office automatically -- without congressional debate or approval. President Obama took advantage of this rule to smuggle Berwick into office while members of Congress were at home in our districts for the July 4th holiday.

Even among a long list of Obama nominees with views far to the left of mainstream American opinion, Berwick stands out as particularly troubling. He is on record as stating, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open."

Berwick has praised England's socialized health care system, calling it a "global treasure." In writings published in 2000, he claimed that "nationalized health care was a wise choice in 1948 and... it remains so now."

Berwick is exactly the type of presidential appointee for whom confirmation hearings were devised. Before he's entrusted with extensive power over our daily lives, the American people have the right to hear Berwick clarify his controversial statements and explain his plans for reshaping medical care. Furthermore, Congress has a constitutional duty to provide oversight and approval of executive appointments.

Although presidents of both parties have taken advantage of recess appointments, the elevation of Berwick to CMS director is outrageous. Recess appointments are typically used as a last resort to appoint officials whose nominations have languished for months without congressional action. However, Berwick was first nominated in April, and the Democratic majority in the Senate never scheduled a hearing. Even Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the committee in charge of Berwick's confirmation, criticized the appointment. Baucus commented that "Senate confirmation of presidential appointees is an essential process... that serves as a check on executive power" and "ensures that crucial questions are asked of the nominee -- and answered." Baucus' committee was still in the process of vetting Berwick in preparation for a hearing when Obama bypassed the Senate and appointed Berwick unilaterally, conveniently avoiding the prospect of televised hearings to expose his views.

In pursuit of their health care agenda, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats have resisted transparency every step of the way. First, there were the closed-door negotiations and legislative gimmicks used to force the bill through. Now, Obama is short-circuiting the confirmation process to install as Medicare manager an avowed supporter of nationalized medicine and health care rationing. Before Berwick begins implementing his radical ideas, it is essential that we repeal the health care law and replace it with true reform the American people can trust.

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