Obama Recess Appoints Romantic Redistributionist

Continuing his pattern of bypassing Congress when he can't get his way, President Obama recess-appointed Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this morning.

What makes this so egregious is that the Empty One didn't even wait for the Senate to reject Berwick. They hadn't even scheduled a hearing yet because Berwick never bothered to fill out the questionnaire sent to him.

Obama knew that Berwick would have an uphill battle to win confirmation. He's an inexperienced, wide-eyed socialist who talks fondly of the "romantic" British health system and the "humane" need to make wealth redistribution an inextricable part of a national healthcare system.

Senators have expressed concerns about statements like these, as well as Mr. Berwick’s background. He is a nominee with little management experience poised to head the second largest insurer on the planet, an agency with more funding to disperse than all but the top 15 economies in the world. In fact, the White House’s decision to make this recess appointment is as much a demonstration of their unwillingness to have any debate about Mr. Berwick’s views occur in the public eye as it is of their concern that some in their own party have privately questioned whether he is outside the mainstream.

Obama is making another end run around Congressional advice and consent. Recall that during President Bush's last years in office, the Democrats in Congress held pro forma sessions to keep him from making recess appointments. At the time, they justified it by claiming that appointees should have "up or down votes." Uh huh. There's not a peep from Democrats today.

Update: GOP leadership responds.

More [ace]: Video: Berwick announces that "men with plans" are good at dictating health care policy, whereas market forces are not to be trusted.

Men with plans.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:25 AM

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