Obama Realilty Check - Healthcare Edition
One of President-elect Obama’s most rousing messages on the campaign stump was a promise to reform our hopelessly dysfunctional healthcare system. But it looks like the man he’s planning to put in charge of the Health and Human Services Department has made a pretty penny helping to prop up and support that diseased system. From Politico:
Barack Obama’s expected pick of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be secretary of health and human services bumps up against the president-elect’s pledge to rid the White House of special interests.
The former Democratic senator from South Dakota is a special policy adviser for the lobbying law firm Alston & Bird. And in his three years there, the firm has earned more than $16 million representing some of the health care industry’s most powerful interests before the department he’s in line to lead.
We can’t help but detect a pattern here:
Obama opposed the Iraq war and says he’s all for bringing our troops out ASAP, yet he’s tapped several Iraq war supporters, or at least enablers, for his national security team.
He says he wants to restrain an out of control executive branch, but is eager to wield the questionable power of the executive order.
He rails against Wall Street’s greed while taking more money from securities and investment donors than any other politician. And he’s chosen one of the primary architects of the financial crisis to be his main economics advisor.
Now, he’s about to appoint a former lobbyist for the healthcare industry to … oversee the healthcare industry.
Obama promised to bring “fundamental change” to Washington. But as far as we can see, the only change he’s bringing to Washington is the change between his campaign rhetoric and his governing style.
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