Thread: Sebelius Obama's choice for secretary of Health & Human Services

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius tapped to lead HHS
By CHARLES BABINGTON and JOHN HANNA, AP Writers
2 hrs 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services, a White House source said Saturday.

The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said Obama will formally announce the nomination on Monday.

The Sebelius pick caps a week in which Obama underscored his resolve to pass a major health care overhaul this year. He issued a challenge to Congress in his speech Tuesday, and followed up Thursday with a budget that requested an eye-popping $634 billion over 10 years, which the administration called a "down payment" on coverage for all. This week, Obama will host lawmakers of both parties and representatives of major interest groups, from insurers to drug companies to consumers, at a White House summit on health care reform.

Sebelius, 60, is seen as a solid choice to head HHS because as a governor responsible for the Medicaid program in Kansas, she faced the pressure of rising health care costs directly, and saw how hard it is to expand coverage, particularly in bad economic times. She is also familiar with the insurance industry, a key interest group in the health care debate. Before becoming governor, she served as insurance commissioner, and her fellow state commissioners selected her to be national president of their association.

However, Sebelius lacks the deep Washington connections of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Obama's first pick for the job. Daschle, who withdrew after disclosing he had failed to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest, was on a first name basis with most of the members of the Senate. And it's in the Senate where many expect Obama's health care effort to succeed or fail.

Originally, Daschle was to hold both the position of HHS secretary and a top White House post directing the health reform effort. An administration official said Saturday the White House position will not go to Sebelius, but will be filled by another person.

Sebelius had been seen the leading candidate for HHS for several weeks and word of her appointment was greeted favorably by both those who favor the expansion of health care coverage and health insurers. "Together with the president's speech to Congress, and his big health care investment in the budget, the president's appointment of Gov. Sebelius once again makes clear his intention of achieving meaningful health care reform this year," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that has worked for years to expand health care coverage.

"Gov. Sebelius is the right person to move the president's health care agenda forward," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plan, the major trade group representing insurers. "She has a wealth of experience of health care issues and has a legislative history of working with both sides of the aisle."

Abortion foes strongly oppose Sebelius because she once had a reception attended by a late-term abortion provider who now faces criminal charges. The anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, headquartered in Wichita, called Sebelius "unfit to serve."

Democrats say there was never any doubt that Obama would appoint an HHS secretary who supports abortion rights.

Sebelius will be subject to confirmation by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Kansas governor was an early Obama supporter and a finalist for Obama's ticket before he picked Joe Biden for vice president. During the general election campaign, she spent 24 days stumping for Obama in 16 states, including key battlegrounds such as Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina Ohio and Pennsylvania. Some Democrats in Kansas believe her endorsement of Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton in January 2008 helped boost him to an overwhelming victory in the state's Democratic caucuses.

Some Democrats have said she has built a solid and even close relationship with Obama, gaining his trust.

Her name had been floated for several Cabinet posts, but she removed herself from consideration in December, citing Kansas' budget problems that needed her attention.

She comes from a strong political family. Her father, John Gilligan, was the governor of Ohio in 1971-75, making them the only father-daughter governors in U.S. history.

National party circles have buzzed about Sebelius since she won her first term as governor in GOP-leaning Kansas in 2002, aided by her image as a no-nonsense administrator and consumer advocate. Party leaders have portrayed her as someone who has been able to attract support from moderate Republicans and independent voters.

She is routinely described as a success at finding bipartisan solutions and has long said addressing rising health care costs and making sure more people have coverage are top priorities for her as governor. But she's often found her ambitions frustrated by Republican legislators who are wary of expanding government and prefer measures that help people find private insurance.

Yet legislators in both parties agree the state has made some progress on health care since Sebelius became governor in January 2003.

The state has expanded cancer screenings, allowed more Kansans can keep their health insurance up to 18 months after leaving their jobs and granted income tax deductions that helped some Kansans lower their insurance costs.

It also has increased funding for "safety net" clinics, expanded state medical and dental coverage for pregnant women and started no-interest loans to help small businesses form associations to provide health plans for employees.

However, Christian Morgan, the Kansas GOP's executive director, said Sebelius deserves no credit for whatever reforms have occurred in the state. He said she'll leave behind "a long string of broken promises."

He also said she has a record of working to expand government programs instead of trying to improve the private insurance market, which he called "a frightening indication of what is to come. Any sort of health insurance-health care policy has come from the Legislature or other outside bureaucracies," he said.

John Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090301/...5zYXNnb3ZrYXQ-

Meet new HHS nominee Kathleen Sebelius — or rather, Kathleen Taxelius
March 2, 2009 01:24 PM

Barack Obama just introduced his latest candidate for the HHS position from which Tom Daschele withdrew over his, you know, tax goofs.

The new pick is Kansas Democrat Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. You’ll remember her cardboard-stiff SOTU response last and her snotty trashing of Sarah Palin.

Looks like there are no nanny and IRS issues in Sebelius’s closet. Her problem isn’t that she’s a tax cheat. It’s that she’s a taxaholic:

SEBELIUS HAS A HISTORY OF “TWISTING ARMS” TO RAISE TAXES

Kansas Has A High Tax Burden:

Kansas Ranks In The Bottom Half Of States For State Business Tax Climate. “Kansas ranks 31st in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index compares the states in five areas of taxation that impact business: corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales taxes; unemployment insurance taxes; and taxes on property, including residential and commercial property. The ranks of neighboring states were as follows: Nebraska (42rd), Missouri (16th), Oklahoma (18th), and Colorado (13th).” (The Tax Foundation Website, www.taxfoundation.org, Accessed 3/1/09)

Kansas Has The 13th Highest Property Tax Burden.

The American Legislative Exchange Council ranks Kansas 38th among states’ property tax burdens, with 1st being the lowest, and 50th being the highest. (Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore, American Legislative Exchange Council, “Rich States Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index,” www.alec.org, 2007, p.71)

Sebelius’ Solution To High Taxes ... Is To Raise More Taxes:

Sebelius Has Called For Hiking The State Sales Tax 8%, The Income Tax By 5%, And Property Tax 10%. “The governor proposes to: Increase the state’s sales tax rate from 5.3 to 5.5 percent on July 1, to 5.6 percent in 2005 and to 5.7 percent in 2006. Impose a 5 percent surcharge on personal income taxes, with no expiration date specified. Raise the state’s 20-mill property tax levy for schools to 21 mills in 2005 and to 22 mills in 2007.” (Chris Moon, “Governor’s Plan Would Raise Three Kinds Of Taxes,” Topeka [KS] Capital-Journal, 2/26/04)

Her Plan Would Have Raised Over $600 Million In New Taxes. “[Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, would raise income, sales and property taxes and spend $663 million more on public schools over the next three years." (Jim Sullinger and John L. Petterson, "It's GOP's Turn At School Finance," The Kansas City Star, 3/13/04)

Already This Year, Sebelius Has Come Out In Favor Of A $0.50 Per Pack Cigarette Tax Increase, Saying She'd Be "Twisting Arms" To Help Pass It. "Gov. Kathleen Sebelius [advocated] proposals that include a 50-cent per pack increase in the state cigarette tax. ‘I will be campaigning for this, urging people to do it, twisting arms to do it,’ Sebelius said.” (Scott Rothschild, “Sebelius, Barnett Join Forces On Tobacco Tax,” Lawrence [KS] Journal-World & News, 1/10/08)

Other stains on the Sebelius record:

*Her abortion extremism and ties to late-term abortionist George Tiller. http://www.lifenews.com/nat4860.html

*An auditing mess in her state’s health policy agency overseeing federal health care programs. http://corner.nationalreview.com/pos...NhMmRmNWQ4Yzg=

Heckuva job, Kathy!

Plainly stolen from another thread on same topic ... hope you don't mind

Originally Posted by anothersta

Yesterday, 03:07 PM

I've come to expect this from his appointees.

So far, they are still calling it 'national healthcare'. When they refer to 'single payer healthcare', that's when you know we are ALL getting it and it's healthcare run by the gov. Which means, if you aren't politically connected, you aren't getting any.

They've already put into motion a system that will PREVENT people from paying outright for services. They're getting set up.....

What I need this admin to do is to DEFINE what healthcare is. So far, they haven't done that other than to know they want shots and mammograms. Healthcare in my mind includes ALOT more than that.

See also : http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-inf...-services.html

At His Blog, ABC's Tapper Notes Obama's HHS Secretary Violated Hatch Act;
Broadcast Networks Omit Story from Newscasts
By Ken Shepherd | September 13, 2012 | 12:23

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel informed President Obama yesterday that it found his controversial Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius violated the federal Hatch Act back in February. ABC News's Jake Tapper noted the finding in a September 12 Political Punch blog post at ABCNews.com, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...ted-hatch-act/ but World News editors apparently thought the matter unworthy of coverage last night. The story was also unreported on NBC's Nightly News and CBS's Evening News.

The Hatch Act forbids federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity and Sebelius did just that in off-the-cuff remarks as the keynote speaker at a February 25 gala for the Human Rights Campaign, Tapper noted (emphasis mine):

The event was billed as official travel, and she appeared at the event in an official capacity, but in her remarks – which departed from her official text – she advocated for the election of Lt. Governor Walter Dalton in his primary and general election race for governor, and for the re-election of President Obama, saying, “one of the imperatives is to make sure that we not only come together here in Charlotte to present the nomination to the president, but we make sure that in November he continues to be president for another four years.”

After media inquiries following those remarks, the Department of Health and Human Services “retroactively reclassified the event as political,” the OSC report states,and reimbursed the federal government for the costs of her travel.

When asked about her remarks in an interview with OSC investigators, the report says Sebelius “expressed regret for the statements” regarding Dalton “since there were ‘other primary opponents who were close by.’” She said her “‘shout out’ came across ‘as an endorsement.’” She allowed that her comments about President Obama were “a mistake” and an example of her again going “off script.” “I clearly made a mistake,” Sebelius said. “I was not intending to use an official capacity to do a political event.”

Yes, the OSC doesn't plan to recommend any disciplinary against Sebelius, and she did reimburse the government after the fact, but those facts could have been mentioned in her defense in a brief report in an evening newscast.

According to the OSC website, violating the Hatch Act usually results in termination of a job, http://www.osc.gov/haFederalPenalties.htm unless the "Merit Systems Protection Board finds by unanimous vote that the violation does not warrant removal" in which case "a penalty of not less than a 30-day suspension without pay shall be imposed by direction of the Board."

In fairness, it should be noted that in January 2011, the OSC reported its findings that a few George W. Bush Cabinet secretaries had violated the Hatch Act during their tenure in office. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bush-...1#.UFIGjFF301k No disciplinary action could be taken, however, as they had long-since vacated their posts with the arrival of the Obama administration.

If a current Cabinet-level administration official violating -- in a presidential reelection year no less -- the federal law that was designed to prevent government employees from partisan politicking isn't newsworthy to the broadcast media, what is?


Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-she...#ixzz26OrgiOVC

Reporters haven’t asked about Sebelius breaking law in W.H. briefings
Published: 12:33 PM 09/18/2012


Reporters covering the White House don’t seem to have many questions about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was last week found in violation of federal law against engaging in political activity while on the job.

A review of transcripts by The Daily Caller indicate that no questions have been asked by the reporters who cover the president about Sebelius during official White House briefings or gaggles since Sept. 12, when the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a report that the cabinet secretary violated the Hatch Act earlier this year.

It’s still up to President Obama whether Sebelius should keep her job or face some sort of punishment after being found in violation of the Hatch Act. (WATCHDOG: Obama must punish Sebelius or Congress can impeach her)

The ethics office said Sebelius violated the law on Feb. 25 while delivering a speech to Human Rights Campaign while serving in her official capacity as cabinet secretary. In her speech, she called for Obama’s re-election, and the election of the Democratic candidate for governor in North Carolina.

The Hatch Act prohibits certain civil servants in the federal government from engaging in political activity on the job.

“While a violation of the Hatch Act occurred, Secretary Sebelius’ statements would have been permissible if they had been made in her personal capacity,” the report said.

Even though reporters haven’t inquired during press conferences and gaggles, White House spokesman Eric Schultz told The Associated Press that, “These were extemporaneous remarks … the U.S. Treasury has been reimbursed, and Secretary Sebelius has met with ethics experts to ensure this never happens again.”
The news about Sebelius was overshadowed last week by the attacks on America’s diplomats in the Middle East. But Torie Clarke, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld, argued while guest hosting WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall on Monday that a double standard may be at play. “If it were a Republican official who had done this, the outrage would be continued and loud and would have been on the Sunday talk shows beyond Benghazi and anything else,” Clarke said.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/re...#ixzz26wZGiIRj