In the current flurry of concern over whether Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich attempted to swap the appointment of Obama associate Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the Senate for a cabinet appointment for himself, it is easy to lose sight of the larger pay-to-play dynamics that have gone into Obama’s cabinet selections (or probably those of any other President or President-elect). The myriad of ways in which “money talks” in American politics is nowhere more baldly demonstrated than the way in which wealthy people who are willing to use that wealth to support political candidates can get plenty of bang of personal advantage from their supporting bucks in the form of presidential cabinet appointments. In this essay, I want to discuss just one current example: the nomination of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services. I expect to do a similar treatment in a future post for the selection of Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy.
The plutocratic element in Daschle’s appointment is especially transparent. The former Majority Leader of the Senate, defeated in 2004 in his re-election bid in Illinois, has cooled his political heels for 4 years but has meantime been busy with involvement with the very health care industry over whose activities he is now to be the designated “czar.” Shortly after leaving the Senate, still barred from lobbying activities by Senate ethic rules, he entered into an “advisory” relationship with the lobbying firm of Alston and Bird, which included a large number of medical and pharmaceutical firms among its clients. These connections with firms that he would be regulating as a health care “czar” is all-too-reminiscent of the way the Bush administration has staffed regulatory agencies with people from the very industries that were supposedly being regulated.
Two other elements of “pay” that may have gone into the “play” that resulted in Daschle being appointed HHS Secretary might be cited. While out of office and presumably to help to “groom” himself for a return to politics, he wrote a book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis with prescriptions for health care “reform” which, like Obama’s (or H. Clinton’s) “reform” plans, were heavily oriented toward that Massachusetts model of “universal” health coverage on an employer-provided and publicly subsidized model, the net effect of which leaves major health care decisions in the hands of the medical and pharmaceutical businesses. Single-payer (Medicare for all) solutions were not believed to be “politically feasible” (Never mind that single-payer already has 93 co-sponsors in the House.) These same health care forces were quick to praise, through their media outlets, the decision to appoint Daschle. As well, “health care professionals” contributed over $25 million to the Obama campaign coffers; well short of the $43 million by “securities and investments” firms, but still a nice piece of change.
We might also look at the pay-for-play activity of the Service Employees International Union, headed by Andy Stern, on Daschle’s behalf. There was no more active “payer” on behalf of the Obama campaign than was the SEIU. Obama owes the union “big time” for its efforts on his behalf. These included very public endorsements, at least $16.5 million in campaign contributions and no doubt best of all, they furnished a legion of around 100,000 ground troops to hit the pavements and man the phone banks on behalf of Obama’s election. On the issue of health care reform, SEIU may have entered into an alliance of convenience (like the alliance that Stern formed with Wal-Mart in supporting their meager employer-based health care system) with corporate interests. While SEIU formally endorsed single payer at its 2008 convention, it also opposed mightily the efforts of a “subsidiary” union, the California Nurses Association, in its efforts to force the issue of single payer to the fore of considerations at that convention.
In sum, the “payments” from health industry and union sources would appear to have produced the “play” of a Daschle cabinet appointment. Rod Blagojevich is apparently headed for jail rather than appointment as HHS Secretary because, in his appointment seeking, he violated the well-established rules of that game.
Jerry D. Rose – Editor, The Sun State Activist
[...] Obama named Thomas Daschle as his choice to be Secretary for Health and Human Services, I wrote a piece on this web log detailing some “ethical” problems with the appointment. My focus was on [...]