Obama Comments on Berwick Recess Appointment
Yesterday NBC News’ Chuck Todd interviewed President Obama; the Today show broadcast the interview this morning. During the interview, the President was asked about the recess appointment of Donald Berwick, and whether it indicated that the President “didn’t want a debate about health care again on Capitol Hill.” The President responded with complaints about the appointment and confirmation process generally—but he did not suggest that Republicans obstructed Dr. Berwick’s nomination specifically (because they did not—Senator Grassley and other Republicans called for hearings on Dr. Berwick’s nomination weeks ago).
The President also responded that “I can’t play political games with the Senate…I’ve got a government to run.” However, he did NOT explain why he didn’t appoint a CMS Administrator for 454 days—which would appear to contradict his stated focus on running the government.
It’s also worth noting that the President ended this exchange by pointing out that “when people are determined and willing to take tough votes even when it’s politically inconvenient we can still get things done.” Some would argue that that rubric might apply to the Berwick nomination itself—that, if Democrats are convinced Dr. Berwick is the best possible Administrator for CMS, they should focus on guiding the nomination through the regular order, even though it might be “politically inconvenient” due to some of his controversial statements.
Video of the interview can be found here (Berwick exchange begins at 9:25), and a transcript follows below.
TODD: Do you think Washington is broken? And the reason I ask you this, because when you appointed—you did the recess appointment of Donald Berwick—you seemed to send the message of—one of two things. Either you didn’t want a debate about health care again on Capitol Hill—which got a little raucous a year ago—or “You know what? The Senate process is broken and we got to go around it.”OBAMA: Well, what is true is, when it comes specifically to appointments, whether it’s judges or critical positions in national security, homeland security, FBI, there have been more delays, obstruction, and stalling when it comes to just appointing people to run the day-to-day aspects of Washington than any President has experienced in history. And the fact of the matter is that I can’t play political games with the Senate on these issues—I’ve got a government to run. And at a certain point, we have to go ahead and just make sure that people are in place to deal with the enormous challenges that are ahead.TODD: So you’re not ready to say Washington’s broken?OBAMA: Well, here’s what I’m ready to say, that Washington has spent an inordinate amount of time on politics, who’s up, who’s down and not enough on how are we delivering for the American people? The good news is that despite no cooperation from the other side, we have over the last two years stopped an economic freefall, stabilized the financial sector. We’re on the verge of passing a financial regulatory bill that provides consumers the kind of protections they deserve—TODD: Probably will be passed by the time people see this—OBAMA: Will be passed potentially by the time we land, I get back to Washington. A health care bill that not only is going to make sure that everybody has access to coverage, but also is reducing costs. So when you look at the list of things we’ve been able to accomplish, it does show that when people are determined and are willing to take tough votes even when it’s politically inconvenient we can still get things done.