US Action News

“Donald Berwick is a one-man death panel,” said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. “While Americans may not remember the agency he heads, he will quickly become known as Obama’s rationing czar.”

Knowing that many in his party wouldn’t support him, the President used a recess appointment to force Dr. Don Berwick into the top spot at Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). By sidestepping the confirmation process, the White House also avoided a messy public debate over Berwick’s fanatical support for “death panels” and rationing.

White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs dodged the questions of whether President Obama agrees with his new Medicare director, Donald Berwick, that the health-care system must redistribute wealth.

Dr. Berwick has spoken of the need to ration health care and cap spending, has supported efforts to “reduce the total supply of high-technology medical and surgical care” and has expressed great admiration for the British health care system.

Obama’s nose grows longer every time he talks about Obamacare, especially when speaking to seniors. Obama told a group of seniors in suburban Maryland last week that “what you need to know is that the guaranteed Medicare benefits that you’ve earned will not change, regardless of whether you receive them through Medicare or Medicare Advantage.” As the Wall Street Journal archly observed last week, “nothing about that sentence is true.”

With the freezing of Medicare Advantage payments in 2011, Congress has set the stage for a progressive reduction in seniors’ access to, and choice of, the popular Medicare Advantage health plans.

Obama says people will get to keep their job-based plans if they want to; the actuary says 14 million people will lose their employer coverage, many of whom would certainly rather keep it than switch into an untested program. The president says the new law will improve the budget outlook; in so many words, the chief actuary says, don’t bet on it.

At issue is Obama’s choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor with a self-professed love affair with Britain’s socialized health care system. In his writings and speeches, Berwick has defended government rationing and advocated centralized budget caps on health care spending.

Hundreds of new agencies, higher insurance costs and now driving up costs

Fundamental changes to the federal budget will be needed to rein in unsustainable deficits, Congress’s budget watchdog said Thursday. Heck the Tea Party folks have been saying that for a year. But wait for Obama’s response ….. just have to raise those taxes after all!