The AP screams through its February 3 headline that "Loss of Daschle clouds health reform prospects" after yesterday's withdrawal of Daschle's name for secretary of Health and Human Services (KEVIN FREKING and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR).
nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services.
Really? One guy who never even worked on the job is enough of an excuse for health services reform to now be on hold? AAQT Today and don't let anyone persuade you to see Daschle as the fall guy responsible for inaction or worse, bad action on health services reform. Refer to this blog's prediction that President Obama was going to try to take the easy way out on this campaign promise...and it had nothing to do with Daschle.
President Obama is losing ground fast with health services reform. Rather than argue about the emotional strings of uninsured "children," notice that health stocks were up yesterday and it has nothing to do with Daschle but rather the President's commitment to providing more dollars for insurers as part of his poor decision for the government to support failing corporations without requiring strict oversight and concrete terms providing for making sure those monies reach the broke consumer...including the children.
President Obama is acting like a parent doling out allowances instead of a partner with corporations expecting them to give to get and we're all going to pay the price for that. There is no reason why President Obama cannot institute a suspension of the enormous giveaway that are governmental benefits and beginning next year expect government employees to be faced with the same expensive and difficult choices that the rest of the Americans he represents must make. There is no reason that he cannot stipulate that all monies handed over by the government must be strictly and separately accounted for and excluded from monies used to pay out enormous bonuses due under separate contracts.
The most infuriating part of this headline is that it treats our government as if it is a corporation...health reform fails because Daschle is gone? Sounds a lot like all the jittery headlines about Apple after Steve Jobs announced he was taking a leave. Our government's weakness is that it resists the FACT that it is NOT a corporation and that instead it is supposed to represent the voters who put individuals in positions of power. Checks and balances have become clouded with power and secret deals, paybacks and personal agendas.
Health reform in the form of action requires money and the Federal government adamantly refuses to dismantle failed programs like HIPAA (which has never fined any entity for violation of privacy, by the way, while it employs how many people?) or the federal benefits programs that use taxpayer dollars to provide better benefits to our employees than citizens can obtain.
Pet projects don't change the numbers: Funding children's insurance programs is nice and cushy but ignores the fact that children being uninsured is a DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF PARENTS BEING UNINSURED but we'll ignore those millions of people.
Health Insurance: Keep it Simple Today: Let President Obama remember that he is not running a corporation, but he is the President of a government that is supposed to represent its citizens, not itself. Suspend government benefits and instead offer benefits choices available for the rest of the American citizenry. Cut funding for HIPAA until it shows real enforcement of the penalties provided for privacy breaches and further clarify what those breaches are (as far as I can tell, the breaches of privacy are so vague that in five years we've never had one worthy of imposing a penalty). Create legislation that provides for use of these savings of billions of federal dollars for governmental contributions to health insurance for part time workers and volunteer workers or expand existing eligibility under Medicaid programs for these working Americans.
Using Daschle's withdrawal as the latest excuse for impotence? Don't put up with it.
