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Obama's Pick for HHS Deputy: Actually Qualified For The Job
The election of George W. Bush came as a boon to the tobacco industry. Cigarette companies helped pay for his election, and Bush repaid them handsomely once in office. Right off the bat, in 2001, his Justice Department tried to derail a major federal racketeering lawsuit against the tobacco companies before it went to trial. A few years later, the administration tried to scupper the first international tobacco control treaty (which the U.S. still hasn't ratified). And in 2007, Bush issued two of the 12 vetoes of his entire presidency to twice kill off bipartisan legislation to increase health insurance coverage for poor kids. Why? Because it would have raised taxes on cigarettes.
What a difference an election makes! Today, President-elect Obama announced his selection of William Corr as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Corr is currently the executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a major foe of Bush's favored industry. More important than his public health advocacy, though: Corr actually has extensive experience with health care policy, a key component of HHS's responsibilities and one of Obama's top priorities. Corr started his career running nonprofit health clinics in Appalachia, and, in a major departure from the last eight years, he has actually worked inside the agency he's been chosen to run.
Corr stands in stark contrast to the people Bush installed in the job. HHS is the largest civilian department in the federal government, housing both the Medicaid and Medicare programs, the Food and Drug Administration, major social welfare programs, and even bioterrorism defense. To manage this enormous portfolio, Bush chose as his first deputy secretary Claude Allen, a man who in 2006 was arrested for making dozens of fraudulent returns at Maryland Target stores, stealing more than $5,000 in the process.
Allen's successor, Alex Azar II, didn't know anything about health care or social policy, but he had clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Azar left the job to go to work for drug maker Eli Lilly. Azar's replacement came to HHS directly from the mergers and acquisitions department of a corporate law firm. The post's current occupant previously worked at the White House, where he was charged with reaching out to Jews. Given this recent history, Corr no doubt has a big job ahead trying to improve morale at a neglected department. But the country should be somewhat reassured that for the first time in many moons, there will be someone at the top who knows what HHS does before he gets there.
Touche'. This is such big news, particularly for the under-privileged children in our country without a voice.
"...where he was charged with reaching out to Jews"
Umm... what does that mean, exactly?
President-elect Barack Obama has used all its forces to make sure that the color of men and women in the United States is not a factor counteracting its message to the American people. He used the racial diversity as an asset in the United States, not as a disability. He managed to put that diversity in a momentum that embraces all hopes seemed lost. This is the rebirth of America established through the efforts of previous generations but completed by the brave men and women of today. The race had no essential role if not the majority would not vote for Obama.
America has shown that the race has not been the fact in November 4, 2008 election.
We expect the swearing to be placed in the economic and social dimension which interrelate the great challenges with the current financial crisis.
The attention of the whole world will be trained on the great ambitions of President-elect Barack Obama, whose efforts and sacrifices have been made to achieve the success of November 4, 2008 election. He is coming at a difficult time.
There are big challenges ahead on the domestic and international levels. But I personally believe that president-elect Barack Obama will make a difference and he will be a leading figure in the history of the United States of America and the rest of the world. America has opened a new page in its history. It comes to show and convince the rest of the world that this beautiful country does not believe in fate, which manifests the "determinism" of social expectations.
America gives the same opportunities and the same chances to all. That is why the American people have brought Barack Obama to the highest position of the US administration. The expectations are enormous and we wish good luck to president and vice-president elects Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I have a deep conviction that makes me believe they will succeed despite the severe financial and international crises, because they have tried to reach out all the skills of the United States of America including Republicans to work with them in the new administration. That is a very significant political maturity.
God bless America
President-elect Barack Obama has used all his forces to make sure that the color of men and women in the United States is not a factor counteracting his message to the American people. He used the racial diversity as an asset in the United States, not as a disability. He managed to put that diversity in a momentum that embraces all hopes seemed lost.
His famous rhetoric "there is not a bleu America, there is not a red America. There is the United States of America" covers widely his conception of a unified America, from to the step one to the political sphere. This is the rebirth of America initiated through the efforts of previous generations but completed by the brave men and women of today. This is a new day, new America. The dream of Martin Luther King became a reality. The dream of the founders of America is still alive. The two phrases 'Change we can believe in! Yes we can' have been central in his message during the campaign and they did make sense.
We expect the swearing to be placed in the economic and social dimension in correlations with the great challenges associated to the current financial crisis. He is coming at a difficult time: The forecasts in the medium-term are anxious: the automobile industry in bankruptcy, the unemployment rate is expected to slip to 10% and the recession could last until 2010. Obama has already indicated that it intends to create between three and four million jobs during his mandate. The situation is difficult. We wish all the best to Obama's administration.
There are big challenges ahead at the domestic and international levels. But I personally believe that Barack Obama will make a difference and he will be a leading figure in the history of the United States of America and the rest of the world as well. America has opened a new page in its history. It comes to show and convince the rest of the world that this beautiful country does not believe in fate, which manifests the "determinism" of social expectations.
America gives the same opportunities and the same chances to all. That is why the American people have brought Barack Obama to the highest position of the US administration. The expectations are enormous and we wish good luck to president and vice-president elects Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I have a deep conviction that makes me believe they will succeed despite the severe financial and international crises, because they have tried to reach out all the skills of the United States of America including Republicans to work with them in the new administration. That is a very significant political maturity.
God bless America
Obama must select either proven practitioners with a track record of expertise to run health care, education, NASA, the CIA or any other bureau that is technical in nature, or he must tap politically adroit champions that carry the banner in Congress, but people incompetent to actually fire the shots, themselves.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta may be the "Sarah Palin" of Public Health, and if tapped for Surgeon General, would be our nation's top public health official. Does the "good doctor" know much about the science underpinning health preventive policy, does he have the passion to preach the behavioral changes needed to achieve a healthy nation, does he put this thankless mission of serving as our nation's "health prophet" above his own celebrity career?
Tom Daschle is a veteran politician, not a physician. His "little book of health care" does "little" to qualify him to design and administer our nation's health care system. Health, like space exploration, is an evolutionary endeavor, and never completed, only refined. Our nation's Chief Health Officer must have the technical knowledge of what services constitutes truly health care versus more broadly delivering "medical services". This post requires a genuine passion to promote the former and the stamina to resist our treasury funding the latter.
Obama's pledge of transparency only succeeds if a vigilant public constantly casts "sunshine" on his administration. As we all know and has been said many times, "it is the best disinfectant"