Free Republic

Today President Obama named Donald Berwick to the position of head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is not good news for anyone who relies on either Medicare or Medicaid for their health care. Dr. Berwick, a Harvard medical school professor, was appointed by Obama to this post in April, but no Senate confirmation hearings had even been scheduled, so the president, as is his right, simply appointed the good doctor while Congress was in its Fourth of July recess.

Here’s an interview that Donald Berwick, President Obama’s appointee charged with cutting $500 billion from Medicare, gave in October 2006: Effective leaders know their deficiencies. How do you address yours? I don’t feel like a leader, so it’s very hard for me to project myself into that situation. But inattention to detail is my biggest defect. I’m always leaning forward into something new. I can create a mess. Luckily, I have people who are willing to create the detail around the idea or, if they’re really smart, know which ideas to ignore. The second defect is more personal uncertainty than...