Edward Kennedy pushes Kathleen Sebelius nomination

WASHINGTON - Senator Edward M. Kennedy, citing his own battle with brain cancer, came out forcefully yesterday for Kathleen Sebelius's nomination as health and human services secretary.

"Few debates in Congress touch our lives as profoundly and personally as healthcare. Over the past 10 months, I've seen our healthcare system up close," Kennedy said, his hands shaking slightly.

"I've benefited from the best of medicine," he said, presiding at a hearing for Sebelius, who he said had the "vision, the skill, and the knowledge" to shepherd the healthcare overhaul. "But we have too many uninsured Americans. We have sickness care and not healthcare. . . . Costs are out of control. But today we have an opportunity like never before to reform our healthcare."

Toward the end of the hearing, Kennedy asked Sebelius to affirm support for cancer research. She did.

Sebelius, the Kansas governor and early supporter of President Obama, said she backs his call for giving Americans the option of government-run health insurance as an alternative to private coverage.

The proposal for a public plan that would compete with private insurers has emerged as the most divisive issue as Obama seeks to overhaul the health system to reduce costs and shrink the ranks of 48 million uninsured. Republicans fear that the competing plan would drive some private insurers out of business.

"If the question is, 'Do I support a public option side by side with private insurers?' " Sebelius said, "Yes, I do."

The exchange with Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, was perhaps the most heated in a low-key hearing. Sebelius pledged that if confirmed, "health reform would be my mission."

"Inaction is not an option. The status quo is unacceptable, and unsustainable," said Sebelius, citing high healthcare costs that she said were hurting families and crippling the economy.

Saying she would be a tough enforcer, Sebelius also called for a crackdown on medical fraud as part of any healthcare overhaul. "Having a few strike operations may be the most effective way to send the signal that there's a new sheriff in town, and I intend to take this very, very seriously," she told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

While Obama has pushed for healthcare overhaul, lawmakers have questioned how the administration would pay for the plan. Sebelius didn't offer a specific solution, but said the approach must be comprehensive.

Sebelius did cite Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, where a pioneering 2006 law requires nearly everyone to carry insurance or face fines. Policy makers there decided to extend coverage first, and deal with costs later. Now costs are ballooning. The lesson, Sebelius said, is costs and coverage must be dealt with in concert.

Sebelius is Obama's second pick to head the department. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.

Sebelius alerted senators in a letter yesterday that she has corrected three years worth of tax returns after finding "unintentional errors" involving charitable contributions, the sale of a home, and business expenses.



In the letter obtained by the Associated Press, she says she and her husband paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest for 2005 to 2007.

Obama also wanted Daschle to head the White House Office for Health Reform, but when he dropped out, a separate White House health czar was named.

Sebelius's background on healthcare includes blocking an insurance company merger in Kansas while insurance commissioner in 2001. She has faced opposition from conservatives over her support for abortion rights, but senators didn't raise that issue yesterday.

The health committee won't actually vote on sending Sebelius's nomination to the full Senate. That job falls to the Senate Finance Committee, which will hold her confirmation hearing tomorrow.

News Source: latimes.com

Edward Kennedy pushes Kathleen Sebelius nomination

Obama pledges economic recovery

Barack Obama has told Americans he sees signs of economic recovery, but urged them to be patient and look beyond their "short-term interests".

The US president said his draft budget would build a stronger economy which would mean America did not face a repeat crisis in 10 or 20 years.

"We will recover from this recession," he told a prime-time news conference in Washington DC.

His $3.6tn (£2.5tn) budget faces its first tests in Congress this week. Mr Obama said his economic strategy, and his new budget which was now being prepared, was based on creating new jobs, rejuvenating the housing market, and creating new liquidity and lending by the banks.

He stressed that immediate action was necessary, and urged both Congress and Americans in general to support his plan. Opposition to the package, which features increased health care coverage, higher education spending and a new "cap-and-trade" system on greenhouse gas emissions, is coming from his own Democratic Party as well as the Republican opposition. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session that touched on the environment, the drugs trade and stem-cell research, Mr Obama said he expected "steady progress" in resolving disputes with Iran. He said the status quo in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was unsustainable, adding that it was critical for the US to advance a two-state solution.

'Signs of progress'
In an eight-minute address at the start of the hour-long session, Mr Obama said his administration had "put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts". "And we are beginning to see signs of progress," he said. "The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation, so that we do not face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now." "We have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term - even under the most pessimistic estimates," he argued. Mr Obama urged US citizens to be patient.
"It will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other, that's when we succeed," he said. Asked about the flow of illegal drugs into the US, Mr Obama said his administration would go beyond the $700m plan announced on Tuesday to support Mexico in its fight against the powerful drugs cartels. He also praised his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, for his efforts against the cartels.

Budget fight

The stage is set at Congress for a tough fight over the budget with Mr Obama, who has been in office for barely two months, correspondents say. On Wednesday, he is due to meet Senate Democrats in a bid to rally support for an increased deficit, reckoned to be $1.4tn for next year. The House budget committee will begin writing its version of the budget plan the same day, and on Thursday the Senate budget committee will begin crafting its budget plan for 2010 and the four subsequent years. Republicans complain that the draft budget expands government and raises taxes on the rich and some small businesses. "There is little or no Republican support for this budget," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters news agency. A Congressional budget office analysis released last Friday estimates that President Obama's budget would generate deficits totalling $9.3tn over the next decade. "If these plans are carried out, we run the risk of looking like a Third World country," Mr McConnell was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate budget committee, is preparing to slash Mr Obama's 11% increase for non-defence appropriations to perhaps 6%. "We cannot have debt pile on top of debt," he said. "In the short term, yes, we have got to have added deficits and debt to give lift to this economy, but longer term, we have got to pivot." Mr Obama is also preparing for a European trip next week that includes the London G20 summit on the global economic crisis.

News Source : news.bbc.co.uk

Obama pledges economic recovery