There are varying opinions floating around regarding Obama's recess appointment of Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Given what I said just yesterday about the positive role of experimentation and innovation in health care choices, I can wholeheartedly agree with David Ignatius, who points out that need, and realistically assesses the foolish partisan bickering that anti-reform political forces would have unleashed if Obama had gone through the more normal "advise and consent" process.
Ruth Marcus, by contrast, is far too unrealistic in assessing the willingness of the GOP ("Geezers Obstructing Progress") to play politics with the national interest. If we accept the argument that the President ought to have been prepared to fight the good fight if he wanted to nominate a person of Berwick's incendiary (to opponents) policy views, then surely we must concede Obama made the right decision with the recess appointment by avoiding the equally incendiary (to opponents) policy views of senior Republican Congressmen.
Marcus admits that the real purpose of recess appointments has long since been lost amidst the smoke and fire of political battles, which indeed it has. This originally well-intended procedure for enabling government to keep functioning has unfortunately gone the way of the Supreme Court nomination process. Both have become overly politicized. But that being the case, politicians across the spectrum will continue to employ them as political tools (clubs?) when they can.
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Posted by: Sharron19Banks | July 14, 2010 at 05:44 PM