President Obama has bypassed the normal Senate confirmation process and recess appointed Donald Berwick as Administrator of CMS, where he will oversee Medicare and Medicaid and be charged with implementing ObamaCare’s significant changes to both programs.
Whatever side of the aisle you sit, ask yourself this: Does it make sense to hand over the reins of implementing large swaths of a law as monumental as ObamaCare to a man the public hasn’t been given an opportunity to get to know?
Of course not.
During his campaign President Obama rightly promised unprecedented transparency in his administration. However since his inauguration, it has been politics as usual at the White House, this time shielding an important appointment from public accountability in confirmation hearings.
If the President won’t uphold his campaign pledges on his own volition, it is our job to demand and when feasible pursue their execution.
In terms of the case before us, we have a viable and reasonable way to do so, stop the funding necessary for CMS to implement ObamaCare until Berwick’s nomination by the Senate in the next Congress.
Don’t we, the taxpayers who are footing his salary, have a right to hear him explain his vision for implementing and enforcing ObamaCare, a matter that should concern both supporters and opponents of the law?
To allow for this necessary transparency, Congress has the paramount responsibility to its constituents of withholding CMS’ funding to implement ObamaCare until Berwick is nominated by the Senate.
Alex Cortes is the Chairman of DeFundIt.org, an organization advocating for the de-funding of ObamaCare.