HillaryCare.
Posted on 04/10/2002 11:56:42 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Ever wonder why Democrats are putting up roadblocks to President's Bush picks to the judiciary but his nominees to head the National Institutes of Heath and surgeon general have faced virtually no opposition? Over the last decade, the health care issue has been every bit as contentious as the federal bench. Remember the fight over Hillary Care?
Also, the big debate over who is suitable to be a federal judge or Supreme Court justice no longer centers on qualifications. It's about the nominee's stand on the sanctity of life. The Democrat Party, now in control of the United States Senate, is determined to screen out anyone it suspects might render a decision that would put limits on the taking of life, whether it be for convenience at the beginning or end of life or for the purpose of medical experimentation involving cloning and stem cells.
These are all health issues. If the Democrat Party is willing to go to the mat on this issue for judicial appointments, why not on the nation's top docs? They are! They are using Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the president's Democrat buddy from Massachusetts, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, to do the dirty work.
The same Teddy Kennedy who effectively derailed the president's attempt to reform education, the man with whom the administration is now negotiating the Patient's Bill of Rights, has been putting up roadblocks to the four nominees who will be at the controls of the nation's health care: surgeon general, the heads of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and the new commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
That's why it has taken so long for Bush to fill these important posts. Early on, Kennedy let it be known that he wasn't moving forward on any nominee from the private sector. Why? Sen. Kennedy is in lock step with Hillary Clinton on health care; he wants it under the control of the federal government. Someone from the private sector, who meets a payroll and treats patients who are picking up their own tabs, is going to see right through Kennedy's plans.
So whom did President Bush nominate to head the National Institutes of Health? Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, executive vice dean at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which for more than nine years has ranked first in research money awarded through the National Institutes of Health.
Not only has the federal government had Johns Hopkins on a short leash, there are other problems with Zerhouni's appointment. He was a driving force in establishing the Institute for Cell Engineering, which seeks to advance embryonic stem-cell research. This research is highly controversial since you cannot do it without killing the tiny embryonic human beings involved.
The choice for surgeon general is Dr. Richard H. Carmona. Like Zerhouni, he also has ties to academia. He has been a medical school professor at the University of Arizona, a public health official as the CEO of the Pima Health Care System, the chairman of the State of Arizona Southern Regional Emergency Medical System and a police officer with the Pima County Sheriff's SWAT team.
While the credentials of these men are impressive, what both lack is practical experience in the private sector. By acquiescing to Kennedy's demand and not exposing it, Bush has, in effect, given him control of the nation's health care.
If Sen. Kennedy can control our health care, he can control every other aspect of our lives. He wants the masses beholden to him for everything from their aspirin to their appendectomies. When Hillary failed to achieve her goal of nationalizing health care in one fell swoop, she handed the ball to Kennedy, her point man in the Senate, and he has been working toward nationalizing health care in piecemeal fashion.
His biggest coup was in 1997, when he succeeded in getting a Republican-controlled Congress to add the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to the Balanced Budget Act. This is government health care, not for poor children, but children of working families. When he succeeds in getting all children under a government program, he will campaign to cover their mothers. When mothers are covered, his friends in the feminist movement will be only too glad to point out that this is unfair to women with no children. Once they are covered, the men of the country will discover they are the only ones left out from under Uncle Sam's protective umbrella and demand to be included as well.
Two nominations made and two more to go, but with Sen. Kennedy vetting these health care appointments and setting the terms, it's a prescription for disaster.
HillaryCare.
Please stop vacillating and tell us how you really feel!
The state that put him in office deserves just what they get from him. It's just sad that the rest of the country has to put up with him.
He is the perfect example for term limits.
When you thake a good look at him you will see the result of his life style:
Fat
Bleary eyed
Red faced
Mumbling
He is oh so important in his own eyes that I suppose that he spend a lot of time in front of the mirror telling himself how great he is and how important he is to the common people.
His departure from public office will be a better day for the rest of the country.
The sooner the better.
One of my major regrets in life is not punching the living snot out of Fat Boy in '79 when I ran into him all alone out on Point Gammon.
Probably best that I acted the gentleman or I'd be typing this from some Federal prison.
Haven't thought of that angle yet. Maybe W and T are 'drinkin' buddies', working their way thru some of T's imported demons.
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