Medical blog » Democrats

Democrats move to save Daschle's bid for health secretary

admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:04:14 +0000

White House officials and Senate Democrats today were fighting to keep alive former Senator Tom Daschle’s cabinet nomination, the morning after
’s nominee for health and human services secretary faced a tough grilling from his former Senate colleagues over revelations he had initially failed to pay more than $140,000 (£97,700) in taxes and interest.
President Barack Obama yesterday said that he was “absolutely” behind Daschle, former Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota and a mentor to Obama, and press secretary Robert Gibbs said White House staff had been lobbying senators to support the nomination.
“It was a serious mistake, one that he caught and remedied,” Gibbs told reporters. “We think he is still the best person to do healthcare reform and shepherd that very complicated process through Congress to achieve savings and cut costs for the American people.”
Daschle is known as a healthcare expert and has co-authored a book on healthcare reform. He is also close to Obama and widely liked and respected in the Senate, making him an asset in Obama’s upcoming effort to broadly revamp the US healthcare system.
But since his nomination, he has revealed that he failed to pay a staggering sum in taxes on a car and driver provided to him by a friend and wealthy Democratic donor.
Critics say the image of a former senator receiving such a benefit – estimated to be worth more than $255,000 over three years – from a wealthy businessman is at odds with Obama’s push for stricter separation between government and industry.
Daschle is the second Obama nominee to face confirmation trouble over non-payment of taxes. Obama’s nominee for treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, admitted that he had failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in income taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund. Geithner ultimately won Senate confirmation.
Last night Daschle sat through a long closed-door meeting with members of the Senate finance committee, who questioned him about the tax issue. Senators have said they have more questions about how Daschle came to owe $140,167 in income taxes and interest.
Daschle emerged from the closed-door session last night looking ashen, and hardly confident about his prospects.
“When I realised the mistake I notified officials and I paid the tax in full,” he told reporters. “It was completely inadvertent, but that’s no excuse and I deeply apologise to president Obama, my colleagues, and the American people.”
Daschle said he hoped his “mistake” would be weighed against his 30 years of public service.
This morning, the New York Times called for Daschle to step aside, noting the tax issue and the fact that he drew a sizeable income from healthcare companies he will be expected to regulate as health and human services secretary.
“It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws,” the paper wrote.
Also today, Obama is expected to nominate Republican New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg as commerce secretary. Gregg said yesterday that he would not leave the Senate unless he were to be replaced by a Republican.
New Hampshire governor John Lynch, the Democrat who would appoint a replacement, indicated last night that he would appoint a Republican to fill the seat until the 2010 election.
“It is important that President Obama be able to select the advisers he feels are necessary to help him address the challenges facing our nation,” he said in a statement. “If President Obama does nominate Senator Gregg to serve as commerce secretary, I will name a replacement who will put the people of New Hampshire first and represent New Hampshire effectively in the US Senate.”
Gregg replaces another scandal-plagued Obama appointee: New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who withdrew from consideration amid revelations that a financial services firm that contracted with the state had contributed to a political fund he controlled.

Senate Democrats Get Serious About Health Care System Overhaul

admin — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:46:57 +0000

Nov. 17, 2008 – 1:02 p.m.
to take office next year or for the 111th Congress to convene, Senate Democratic leaders this week are escalating discussions about an ambitious overhaul of the health care system.
, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, and
, D-Mass., who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plan to meet Tuesday to discuss how to craft an overhaul that would fall under the jurisdiction of both committees. Baucus’ committee plans a hearing Wednesday on the issue.
“Now is the time,” Baucus said at a Brookings Institution seminar on health care Monday. “We’re going to get it done.”
Baucus said a comprehensive health care overhaul will be his top priority next year. He has outlined a plan that includes expanding both public and private insurance plans so that every American has coverage, while simultaneously reducing health care costs and improving the quality of care by changing the way health care is delivered and paid for. “The time for incremental improvements has passed,” he said.
Kennedy said in a statement, “We’ve been making real progress in our discussions about a consensus approach, and I’m optimistic we’ll succeed.”
About 46 million Americans lack health insurance of any kind, according to the U.S. Census. About 25 million more are under-insured, Baucus said, or in his words, “have some insurance, but it’s lousy insurance.” Health care costs, he said, have meanwhile risen 5.5 times faster than wages from 2000 to 2007.
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Democrats set vote to expand kids' health plan

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:27:10 +0000

Monday, January 12, 2009
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, eager to score an early session victory and to give President-elect Barack Obama a high-profile bill to sign by Inauguration Day, are set to vote this week on legislation that would give medical coverage to millions of uninsured children.
Democrats had wanted to pass an almost $800 billion economic-stimulus intended to prime the slumping economy, a move that would have boosted their public image as a party of action.
But as work on the package slogged and the Democrats’ self-imposed deadline for passage slipped to February, party leaders – fearful of being tagged as ineffective – now say they will call for a vote Wednesday or Thursday on a long-stalled measure to increase funding for the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.
The Democrat-controlled Congress twice in 2007 passed measures to expand SCHIP, only to have their efforts thwarted by a veto from President Bush. But with Mr. Obama supporting the proposed expansion – along with many congressional Republicans – the measure is destined to finally pass.
“I think they think it is a pretty easy win,” said John Fortier, a congressional expert with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning Washington think thank. “I’m not saying that they want to do health care incrementally, but I think they do see some [health care] pieces that can be done earlier, and they’re just going to do them.”
SCHIP, a federal-state grant program, subsidizes the cost of insuring children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.
Mr. Bush vetoed the Democrat-crafted SCHIP expansion, saying it was too costly, would cover some adults and children in middle-class families and would be paid for in part with an increase in the federal cigarette tax.
Many congressional Republicans in 2007 also opposed the measure because they said it didn’t provide enough assurances that the poorest children eligible would be covered first and provided insufficient safeguards to ensure money wouldn’t be spent on people who are ineligible, including illegal immigrants.
But with Democrats holding an overwhelming majority in the House and sufficient Republican support expected in the Senate, the bill will face few obstacles on its way to Mr. Obama’s desk once he is sworn-in as president Jan. 20.
An overhaul of the nation’s health care system is one of Mr. Obama’s major priorities for 2009. The man he has tabbed to lead the effort, Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle, has been a longtime proponent of major provisions of the president-elect’s health care reform strategy, including some form of universal medical insurance coverage.
Mr. Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat and former Senate majority leader, faced few tough questions before a Senate health committee confirmation hearing Thursday, paving the way for his expected confirmation.
A quick SCHIP victory also would give Democrats confidence and momentum to tackle big-ticket items such as the economic-stimulus package and a comprehensive health care reform package.
“The same idea always makes sense, and that is: Pass something quick just to show you have some mojo and then worry about something else,” said James Pinkerton of the New America Foundation, who worked in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
The Clinton administration used a similar tactic during its push for universal health care coverage soon after coming to power in 1993. Capitol Hill Democrats early in the year ushered through the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows an employee to take unpaid leave for a family member’s serious health condition, as a prelude to the administration’s proposed health care reform.
The recipe is by no means a guarantee of success, however, as the Clinton administration’s health care plan was shot down by Republicans later in 1993.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said Friday that this year’s SCHIP measure will be almost identical to the version that died on Mr. Bush’s desk in 2007, which called for adding about 4 million children to the 6 million already served by the program. The expansion at the time would have cost an additional $35 billion for five years for a total of about $60 billion.
SCHIP program was to be paid for in part with a 61-cent tax increase on a pack of cigarettes.
But Democrats may be forced to scale back the 2009 version, as the pending economic-stimulus package and last autumn’s $700 billion Wall Street bailout have strained the federal coffers, said some Democratic aides privately Friday.
The program’s costs also have increased in the past two years. And with cigarette sales slumping, new revenue sources would be needed to expand the program to the levels specified in the 2007 proposal.

Senate Democrats back Obama health pick Daschle

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:53:39 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Democrats rallied behind Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama’s choice to lead reforms of the costly U.S. health-care system, on Monday after he apologized for tax issues that raised questions about his nomination.
Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee, whose approval Daschle needs to become as health and human services secretary, voiced strong support for the former Senate Democratic leader after he met behind closed-door with the panel.
The committee considered the nomination and revelations that Daschle made mistakes on tax returns and had to pay some $140,000 in back taxes.
“His tax mistakes are regrettable,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, told reporters after the meeting. “His tax mistakes do not change his qualifications to lead on health care reform. They do not change my support for his nomination.”
Obama said on Monday he “absolutely” stood behind Daschle, who also received backing from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Other Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voiced their support as well.
“I think the evidence is very convincing, Tom’s had a great life of public service and I think he was trying to do in every way what was right,” said Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat. “So far I haven’t seen anything that would preclude me from supporting him.”
But Republicans on the committee were tight-lipped, declining to comment on the meeting or Daschle’s confirmation prospects.

Democrats Resisting Obama on Social Security

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:01:23 +0000

, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and other priorities.
Mr. Obama considered announcing the formation of a Social Security task force at a White House “fiscal responsibility summit” that he will convene on Monday. But several Democrats said that idea had been shelved, partly because of objections from House and Senate leaders.
The president signaled in his campaign that he would support addressing the retirement system’s looming financing shortfall, in part by applying payroll taxes to incomes above $250,000. But that would ignite intense opposition from Republicans, especially with the economy deep in recession.
Liberal Democrats are already serving notice that they will be equally vehement in opposing any reductions in scheduled benefits for future retirees. But any solution, budget analysts said, must include a mix of both approaches, though current beneficiaries would see no change.
Despite the long-running partisan divide over benefits and taxes, the advocates for a compromise see an opportunity now given the fact that the stock markets’ slide has discredited the idea of carving private accounts from Social Security. Former President
demanded such accounts as the centerpiece of any compromise, while Democrats and some Republicans were just as adamantly opposed, dooming his effort in 2005.
“The carve-out account is off the table,” said Senator
, a South Carolina Republican who has long sought a deal.
This month, Mr. Obama unexpectedly approached Mr. Graham when he was at the White House to meet with
, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff. Mr. Graham, who was a vocal foe of Mr. Obama’s $787 billion
, said in an interview: “I know he’s sincere about wanting to do something about entitlements generally, health care and Social Security. And I want to help him.”
Despite Mr. Obama’s interest, his political and policy advisers are divided, with most arguing that taking on Social Security would overload a legislative system already strained by the economy and war.
Within the administration, “the question is whether it helps you in moving the rest of the agenda or hurts you,” said
, an informal adviser to Mr. Obama and former chief of staff to President
who is now head of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning research group.
Mr. Podesta is among those arguing for action sooner rather than later. “What this crisis has proven,” he said, “is that we need to have a basic benefit that keeps people out of poverty, and that we need to work at both ends — toward fiscal sustainability and toward ensuring that people, particularly at the bottom, have an adequate benefit.”
For some Democrats, another reason to act is that with their party in control of the White House and Congress, they are positioned to produce a solution more to their liking. And while neither the changes nor the fiscal benefits would take effect soon, a compromise would send a reassuring signal to markets and to foreign investors who worry about the nation’s huge looming liabilities for promised social benefits, advocates said.
Those who oppose action said Mr. Obama must focus on his bigger priority — health care legislation to expand access to insurance and reduce the costs of care. They argue that success there would help control the unsustainable growth of
, the government’s other major benefit programs, which together pose a far greater fiscal problem.
Social Security still runs a surplus, and its reserves will not be exhausted until 2041, after which enough payroll taxes will come in to cover 78 percent of benefits, according to the 2008 annual report of the program trustees. Medicare, by contrast, requires big infusions from general revenues each year; its hospital trust fund is already running annual deficits and will be exhausted by 2019.
The problems of both programs, as well as those of Medicaid, are sharpened as the huge generation born between 1946 and 1964 reaches retirement age. While presidents have grappled with Social Security for three decades, Mr. Obama comes to office just as the first of those 77 million Americans are turning 62, making them eligible for early retirement benefits. Most Americans claim early benefits, which are slightly reduced, rather than waiting until age 66 for full benefits.
“What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further,” Mr. Obama said days before his
. “We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else’s.”
Likewise, Mr. Bush often said that he would not leave big problems like the finances of Social Security to a future president. Yet warnings of a coming crisis like the one he sounded four years ago pale against the economic crisis at hand, many Democrats said.
Social Security “was a critical issue before we got into this crisis,” Representative Ellen O. Tauscher, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the New Democrats coalition of House moderates, said in an interview. “Now it’s one of those things — the question is, is it a nice-to-have or a have-to-have?” She said she would favor having a bipartisan group take up the issue and devise a plan “that doesn’t get delivered until perhaps a year from now.”

Democrats get push from Planned Parenthood

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:07:04 +0000

Published: Sunday, October 5, 2008
By JOSEPH G. COTE Staff Writer
Democratic candidates at the local and national level were getting a boost in Nashua on Saturday thanks to a team of pink-clad volunteers committed to women’s health. Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, visited the city Saturday morning and led a walk through a south Nashua neighborhood to support Nashua Democrat Peggy Gilmore and to highlight presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s voting record on women’s health issues.
“Women voters are going to determine the presidential election,” Richards said. “This is a critical election. We have a chance to elect a partner to the White House.”
About 20 volunteers wearing bright pink Planned Parenthood T-shirts, the majority of whom traveled from Connecticut, gathered in Rep. Cindy Rosenwald’s Wellington Street home in the morning to organize and hear from Richards before hitting the streets.
“I like to go to any event where guys are in pink shirts,” she joked.
Richards says McCain has voted against women’s reproductive rights and privacy 125 times in the 25 years he has served in whom Planned Parenthood volunteers talk don’t know that, she said, and when they hear about his record, they “decide he’s too out of touch for them,” she said.
Gilmore is running against former state Rep. Paul LaFlamme for Sen. David Gottesman’s seat. Gottesman isn’t running for re-election.
After walking and talking to about 30 registered independent women in Nashua, the roughly 20 volunteers took to the phones and started making calls to support Betsi DeVries, a Manchester Democrat running for a state Senate seat against Manchester Republican Doug Kruse.
West Hartford, Conn., resident Kate Miller drove for two-and-a-half hours Saturday so she could participate.
“This is a really important election, and I’m going to be very upset if it doesn’t come out right,” she said. “I have a lot of number one issues, but this is an important one.”
The volunteers were also gathering signatures for Planned Parenthood’s One Million Strong campaign, which aims to get a million abortion-rights voters to the polls in November.
A local anti-abortion group was planning a Nashua demonstration of its own before hearing about Planned Parenthood’s efforts Saturday.
Darlene Marie Pawlik, president of the Bedford-based New Hampshire Right to Life, said she’ll be on Main Street on Tuesday with a picture of an aborted baby and literature for anyone who wants it.
She called Richards’ and Planned Parenthoods’ claims that McCain has voted against women’s health “verbal gymnastics.”
“It’s not about health. It’s about death,” Pawlik said. “As long as they keep abortion hidden, they can keep calling it health.”
Pawlik said Planned Parenthood has created a self-fulfilling prophecy by encouraging promiscuity and therefore creating more customers needing contraceptives, abortions and STD remedies.
“It’s a trap, and it’s set by Planned Parenthood,” she said. “The health care that they’re providing is birth control drugs and devices that are bad for people.”
Planned Parenthood operates 26 health centers in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and provides health care to 18,000 women in New Hampshire. About half of those don’t pay full price, according to Dawn Touzin, the vice president of public policy and government affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or
.

Democrats drop health-care option from stimulus plan

admin — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:18:17 +0000

When the House version of the $819-billion economic stimulus plan passed on
Jan. 28, one important section was missing. It pertained to expansion of health
care services for low-income women.
The original bill contained the Medicaid Family Planning State Option. States
have been required to obtain a Department of Health and Human Services waiver
to use Medicaid funds for family planning services, even cancer screenings; 27
states have done this. The provision would have permitted the remaining 23
states to more easily and quickly expand eligibility for these programs to more
low-income women, without applying for the time-consuming and costly
waiver.
This simple provision would have provided coverage for millions of women who
desperately need these services now, at a time of severe economic crisis, when
so many are losing homes, jobs and health insurance. Increasing numbers of
women now need safety-net health care and family planning services, including
costly contraceptives.
House Republicans had launched a hostile campaign, rife with misinformation,
against the inclusion of this provision in the stimulus package, threatening to
veto the entire bill. Led by House Minority Leader John Boehner, the
anti-choice Republican right wing zeroed in on this part of the bill, mocked
the provision as “frivolous,” criticized its alleged
cost—$550 million over 10 years, a drop in the bucket in the stimulus
plan—and whipped up venom against it.
One phony allegation was that it wouldn’t create jobs. In reality,
expanding family planning to cover more people would add health care jobs.
Ultraright-wing media pundits, including the misogynist Rush Limbaugh, and
reactionary organizations like the so-called Family Research Council launched
misleading, vituperative attacks against this part of the stimulus bill,
blasting government support for family planning programs. Television anchors on
ABC, CNN and MSNBC also criticized and heavily distorted this provision’s
intent.
Some falsely claimed that the government is mandating family size by providing
family planning services. It is not. It is providing women with medical
services and information so they can make important decisions about their own
health and lives—which the anti-choice forces are aiming to stop.
When the right-wingers became more voceriferous, and the media clamor got
louder, the Democratic administration dropped this section of the bill like a
hot potato. They directed Sen. Henry Waxman, who runs the committee dealing
with Medicaid, to eliminate it, anticipating the plan would then pass. But it
did not. Even with the capitulation to the Republican right, not one GOP House
member voted for the bill.
Women’s rights, family planning and health care activists and
organizations immediately voiced their anger and disappointment at the dropping
of this essential health care provision from the stimulus plan. They called it
partisan politics that demonstrate a callous disregard for women’s
health.
“The Medicaid Family Planning State Option fully belonged in the economic
recovery package,” said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the
National Women’s Law Center. “The Republican leadership opposition
to the provision shows how out of touch they are with what it takes to ensure
the economic survival of working women and their families.”
(rhrealitycheck.org)
They are also out of touch with the majority of people who support expansion of
family-planning services to low-income women.
To deny expanded family planning services to uninsured women is also to deny
them access to general medical care and improved health. Federally funded
family planning programs are often the only places where they can obtain vital
primary care, including basic check-ups, cancer screenings and STD and other
vital testing, which can help prevent serious illnesses and complications.
The short-sighted policy of curtailing federally funded programs can lead to
more unintended pregnancies and more abortions. Lack of basic health care can
lead to more preventable cancers and other severe diseases. Early detection and
treatment, on the other hand, lower medical costs over the long run while
saving lives and promoting better health for women.
The right wing’s myopic view deliberately overlooks the facts: these
programs promote health and save money by expanding access to preventive care.
Even to a bean counter, these services are worthwhile. The Congressional Budget
Office stresses this plan will actually save the federal government more than
$200 million over five years.
The House’s economic package is now going to the Senate. It is likely too
late to reinstate the Medicaid Family Planning State Option back into the bill,
but women’s rights and health care advocates encourage pressure on the
White House and Congress to attach it to upcoming legislation or put it in
future budgets.
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House Democrats Unveil Health IT Legislation In Stimulus

admin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:49:05 +0000

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–House Democrats unveiled the details of a $20 billion health information technology plan as part of their larger stimulus package on Friday, an approach that could allow them to avoid the objections that have stalled similar legislation in recent years.
The draft legislation, released by the House Ways and Means Committee Friday, will create incentives for doctors who adopt electronic health record technology. There is broad consensus in industry and Congress that legislation is needed to address IT issues in health care. Greater use of electronic patient information is seen as a way to cut costs and improve …

Democrats Work to Save Daschle’s Nomination

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:16:07 +0000

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats rushed on Saturday to save the nomination of their former leader,
, as
’s health and human services secretary, while the White House sought to explain how Mr. Daschle survived its vaunted vetting process despite his failure to pay $128,000 in taxes.
Senior administration officials said that although Mr. Daschle was aware as early as June 2008 that he might have to pay back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a private equity firm, he did not inform the president’s
until mid-December, several days after Mr. Obama announced Mr. Daschle as his pick for health secretary. Mr. Obama is standing by him, the White House said.
“The president believes that nobody is perfect, but that nobody is trying to hide anything,”
, the president’s press secretary, said in an interview, adding, “I think Senator Daschle rightly is going to have to answer questions, but I think members will be satisfied with the answers that he gives and will understand that he’s the right man for the job.”
But Mr. Daschle’s confirmation is far from assured. On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with holding a confirmation hearing on Mr. Daschle’s nomination, will meet behind closed doors to discuss his taxes. After
, Mr. Obama’s Treasury secretary, faced similar issues, some senators may have little appetite for confirming another nominee with tax problems.
“It’s totally shocking,” an aide to a Democratic senator said Saturday. “Why do we have to continue to have the same story over and over again with these nominees?”
Mr. Daschle, who has paid the back taxes with interest, is the latest of Mr. Obama’s cabinet choices who have run into trouble, and the revelations about his finances — which include more than $300,000 in income from health-related companies that he might regulate as secretary — raise questions about the presidential vetting process, as well as Mr. Obama’s ability to keep his pledge to run an administration free of outside influence.
“One of the problems here is what they set up as expectations,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, an expert in presidential transitions at Towson University. “If you have talked about the importance of ethics and set up the kind of rules they did on lobbying, then I think it sets expectations that yours is going to be an administration that is not going to have problems that others might have had.”
Privately, some Democrats on Saturday were scratching their heads at how Mr. Daschle, a Washington insider with a reputation as a sophisticated thinker, could have made such a mistake. A spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle, Jenny Backus, said he had made an honest error, corrected it and followed the Finance Committee’s rules not to make the information available publicly until it was aired in the committee.
“He took responsibility for his mistake as soon as he figured it out,” Ms. Backus said. “That’s about all you can do. People who know him and respect him are putting that mistake in context.”
On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats rallied around Mr. Daschle, a former senator from South Dakota who lost his seat in 2004 while serving as the minority leader. Mr. Daschle is a close ally of the president’s — he marshaled his staff on behalf of the Obama campaign, and at least five former Daschle aides now have top White House jobs — and Democrats vowed to go to bat for him.
“We wish this didn’t happen,” said Senator
, a New York Democrat who is on the Finance Committee, “but he’s chosen such quality people that nobody minds taking a bit of an extra step to help get them in.”
But already, Mr. Daschle is becoming the butt of Republican jokes, as was the case at the House Republican retreat this weekend. According to one person who was there, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the party whip, had this to say after hearing the news about Mr. Daschle: “It is easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because — you know what? — they don’t pay them.”
When Mr. Obama was elected, official Washington marveled at the speed of his transition and the rigorous vetting process. But Paul C. Light, a professor at
who studies the federal bureaucracy, said that “speed may have been the enemy of thoroughness” in the Obama process. The White House, though, insisted that was not the case.
“In terms of the vetting,” Mr. Gibbs said Saturday, “we’re comfortable with the process.”
The information about Mr. Daschle has come to light in different ways. He disclosed some to the transition team, including the taxes owed on the car and driver, in December, after instructing his accountant to investigate. The transition team spotted a problem with his charitable tax deductions, and the Senate Finance Committee discovered the failure to pay
tax on the use of the car.
If Mr. Daschle’s confirmation is derailed, it would undoubtedly hurt one of Mr. Obama’s major domestic priorities: revamping the health care system. Mr. Daschle has been asked by the president to serve in a dual role spearheading that effort as the White House “health czar.”
As a politician, Mr. Daschle often struck a populist note, but his financial disclosure report shows that in the last two years, he received $2.1 million from a law firm, Alston & Bird; $2 million in consulting fees from a private equity firm run by a major Democratic fundraiser, Leo Hindery Jr. (which provided him with the car and driver); and at least $220,000 for speeches to health care, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. He also received nearly $100,000 from health-related companies affected by federal regulation.
Mr. Obama has instituted rules requiring former lobbyists in his administration to pledge not to deal with former clients, though he has made exceptions. As a strategic adviser to companies, Mr. Daschle did not have to register as a lobbyist, and is not technically covered by those rules.
“He’s never lobbied, therefore he’s not in violation of the pledge,” Mr. Gibbs said. “The president is comfortable with Senator Daschle’s variety of experiences and backgrounds. It’s why he believes he’s best suited to the efforts to reform our health care system.”

House Democrats launch radio ads against Republicans who opposed …

admin — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:50:02 +0000

As they say, that didn’t take long. Five days to be exact.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this morning says it’s going to run radio ads and a grassroots campaign in 28 House districts against Republicans who opposed the stimulus package passed Wednesday.
The ads start tomorrow and will be up for a week.
The DCCC says its “Putting Families First” campaign focuses on the Republicans’ “out of step priorities by putting bank bail outs and building schools in Iraq before the needs of the Americans in the struggling economy.”
New GOP chairman Michael Steele told us yesterday that House Republicans had good reasons to vote against the stimulus.
.
The DCCC ads on economic recovery focus on jobs, schools and the Wall Street bailout. One example: “Did you know (targeted lawmaker) voted to bail out big banks, but opposed tax breaks for 95 percent of American workers? Times are tough, tell (lawmaker) to put families first.”
The other ads say various members “opposed over $526 million to modernize crumbling Michigan schools, but supported building new schools in Iraq” or “voted against economic recovery to immediately create and save” jobs in the state.
There’s also an ad about three members’ votes against expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Details on that below, along with full list of targeted districts.