Wednesday, Jan. 14,2009 12:04 a.m.
Last week, Tom Daschle, former South Dakota senator, spoke before the
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Daschle is
President-elect Obama’s choice to head the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and the newly created White House Office of Health
Reform.
It was the first of two confirmation hearings, the second coming this week before the Senate Finance Committee.
Many noted the warm welcome he received from both sides of the aisle,
with difficult questions – his plans regarding Medicaid, Medicare and
the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, for example –
conspicuously absent. Some lawmakers, notably Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., have said that the current financial crisis precludes
any drastic health care reform and expansion of federal spending for
the moment.
Though the friendly tone of the hearing indicated common ground between
Republicans and Democrats and a collective understanding that real
reform needs to happen, there were no words on exactly how quickly or
how far the president-elect and Daschle would push for drastic changes
in our health care system.