Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. Congress is out of town on recess, and the President's schedule has been pretty light. In fact, most even in the political world are focused on the LeBron James sweepstakes. So, we'll keep this short.
BERWICK: President Obama used a recess appointment to nominate Donald Berwick to be the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Republicans had threatened to block Mr. Berwick (who is a friend of The Strike's place of employment), because he once said some pretty nice things about the British National Health System. Oh, and he also said that health care obviously must be rationed, the question is how to do so effectively. Any sane person would understand these statements to be non-controversial. However, the wacko wing of the Republican Party, led by Sarah Palin on her Twitter account, wanted to use Berwick's nomination to engage in a fight over health insurance reform. President Obama was very wise to steer clear of this fight. Recess appointments aren't ideal, but this job is critically important. The CMS administrator must oversee the implementation of major portions of the new health care law, including major changes to government health systems.
Berwick's nomination is good until the end of the next session of the Senate, which will be sometime in late 2011. The Republicans will probably have many more seats than they do now, so offhand I'd say Berwick better get to work quickly.
That's it for today, we'll see you tomorrow.
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