Daschle accepts nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services
Tom Daschle
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will be secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, according to multiple news reports today (assuming he gets Senate confirmation). HHS oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes for Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Daschle, who was lost his Senate seat in a reelection bid in 2004, had been a campaign adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. In his new job, he will be instrumental in any health care reform advanced by the Obama administration. He supports government-funded health insurance for the uninsured.
In this interview for The American Prospect with Ezra Klein, Daschle talks about his call in his book “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis” (with Jeanne M. Lambrew and Scott S. Greenberger) for a Federal Health Board that would have authority over health care. Daschle’s book calls for a universal health care system. In it, he says the United States is losing economic advantage because of the number of uninsured Americans and the rising cost of health care.
Obama’s health care plan stopped far short of offering universal or single-payer health care. Daschle’s appointment to HHS may signal hope for those who support universal health care.
Daschle, 60, was one of Obama’s earliest supporters. That early support damaged his long-standing relationship with another senator being considered for a cabinet position and her husband.
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
You gotta love that change Obama is bringing to Washington. Anybody want to buy a bill of goods?
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Referencing The American Prospect ??
Way to bolster that “I‘m-a-serious-journalist” image.
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Yep… Fits right in with that whole “change” thing!
This defines change? Looks like same-old to me. Only thing be-a-changin’ is Obmama’s address.
Good luck w/ that universal govt funded/mandated anything. Who’s gonna pay for that?
The Feds have done such a wonderful job with poverty, education, drugs, and economics, we can hardly wait for the government worshipers version of universal health care. Maybe there will be enough new bureaucrats to offset the jobs being forced out of the country by misguided government and union coercion.
Anyone who believes government can do anything on a major scale has never made a trip to a drivers license office, VA hospital, SS office, or any other office that has to cater to a large group of people. They can’t do anything efficiently. Efficiency is just not the government’s mandate and those who think they will be able to run health care effectively…well, I hope they don’t need urgent care.
Daschle. Holder. Emanuel. This is EXACTLY the sort of bi-partisanship which I predicted we’d get. Obama won, and not by a close margin - so he certainly isn’t obliged to have the ideologically diverse administration he promised. But he DID promise.