Thread: Tom Price sworn in as health and human services secretary

Tom Price sworn in as health and human services secretary

By Associated Press
February 10, 2017 | 11:51am

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Price of Georgia was sworn in Friday as health and human services secretary, setting the stage for the conservative to play a leading role in dismantling President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath to Price hours after he won Senate confirmation on a narrow, 52-47 vote early Friday.

Price is an orthopedic surgeon who is expected to help scuttle the Affordable Care Act, in part, by issuing regulations to weaken it.

Democrats assailed Price as an ideologue with a questionable history of trading health care stocks and warned that he would take away health insurance from millions of Americans.

Price took the oath of office at the White House just hours after the Senate confirmed him in a party-line vote. That roll call came in the dead of night, thanks to Democrats’ tactic of forcing prolonged debates to broadcast their opposition to President Trump and his team.

“Having Dr. Tom Price at the helm of HHS gives us a committed ally in our work to repeal and replace ObamaCare,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday.

Democrats focused on the legislation Price sponsored during a seven-term House career, including efforts to kill Obama’s law. He’s also sought to reshape Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage for seniors into a voucher-like program; cut Medicaid, which helps poor people afford care; and halt federal payments to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions.

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) conceded that Price had experience but added, “It’s the kind of experience that should horrify you.”

That battle won, Republicans were preparing to next win Senate confirmation for financier Steven Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary. He was expected to get the chamber’s approval Monday, along with Trump’s choice to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, physician David Shulkin.

Republicans have lauded Mnuchin’s long career in the finance and banking worlds.

As they did with Price, Democrats are attacking Mnuchin’s background, such as criticizing OneWest bank, which he led, for not protecting thousands of homeowners from unnecessary foreclosures. They also said he failed to disclose nearly $100 million in assets on forms he filed with the Senate.

Price’s nomination is part of a larger clash in which Republicans want to quickly enact priorities long blocked by Obama. Democrats, with few tools as Congress’ minority, are making a show of resistance, stretching some floor debates to the maximum 30 hours that Senate rules allow.

The high stakes plus Trump’s belligerent style have fed the combativeness. They’ve also produced remarkable scenes, including Democratic boycotts of hearings, Republicans suspending committee rules to approve nominees and GOP senators voting to bar Warren from joining one debate.

Democrats have accused Price of lying about his acquisition of discounted shares of an Australian biotech company and benefiting from insider information. They’ve also asserted he pushed legislation to help a medical implant maker whose stock he’d purchased.

Price has said he’s done nothing wrong. It’s illegal for members of Congress to engage in insider trading.

His close confirmation was the fourth consecutive Senate clash over a cabinet nominee that closely followed party lines.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was confirmed 52-47, after Warren was punished for reading a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King criticizing him. Betsy DeVos became education secretary 51-50, thanks to a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.

And former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson became secretary of state 56-43.

Those close tallies are a departure from most cabinet votes, in which the Senate usually grants overwhelming approval in a show of deference to letting presidents choose their teams.

Just four of 31 votes for Obama’s cabinet vacancies drew at least 40 “no” votes, as did only two of 34 votes for cabinet positions under President George W. Bush.

During that period, the closest tally for health secretary before Price was the 65-31 roll call for Obama’s 2009 pick, Kathleen Sibelius.

http://nypost.com/2017/02/10/tom-pri...ces-secretary/

So glad to see Tom Price confirmed and sworn in. Please do a great job for our people, Mr. Price. Focus on the big things, not the little things that most people can and should pay for themselves. Everyone is anxious to see some of the big items acted on, repealing the mandates in Obamacare, erasing the lines, i. e. repealing McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945.