Dole, Shalala to head Health Care Probe

[maddezmom]

Dole, Shalala to Head Health Care Probe

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 6, 2007; 10:30 AM

President Bush today appointed former senator Bob Dole and former health and human services secretary Donna E. Shalala to co-chair a new presidential commission that will look into problems at the nation's military and veterans' hospitals.

Bush made the announcement in a speech to a gathering of the American Legion in Washington.

Bush said Friday that he was forming the commission to carry out a "comprehensive review" of care for the nation's war wounded. He took the action as the administration sought to deal with a growing scandal over conditions for wounded outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Disclosures of squalid living conditions for some soldiers and bureaucratic inertia in dealing with their cases have triggered widespread public outrage, generating official inquiries, congressional hearings, public apologies and calls for corrective action.

At a House subcommittee hearing at Walter Reed yesterday, lawmakers said the problems at Walter Reed, featured in a Washington Post series last month, represented "the tip of the iceberg" and called on the Army and the Bush administration to address similar situations in other hospitals nationwide.


more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030600395.html

[orleans]

1. interesting pick on the shalala aspect.....

"President Bill Clinton appointed Shalala United States Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1993. She served in this role for eight years, becoming the nation's longest serving HHS Secretary.

"In this role, Shalala frequently drew criticism from political conservatives and moderates for her liberal positions. The Washington Post labeled her "one of the most controversial Clinton Cabinet nominees--one who had been branded by critics as being too liberal and politically correct." <3>

"However, Shalala was also known for her fervent anti-drug stance, saying "marijuana is illegal, dangerous, unhealthy, and wrong," though a number of conservatives considered the Clinton administration's anti-drug policies weak. Shalala also expressed reservations about Hillary Clinton's health care reform plan, saying “I didn’t come here to set up a new regulatory bureaucracy in Washington.” "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Shalala#Secretary_of_Health_and_Human_Services

why did bush decide to put her in this position? she sounds a bit too "extreme" for that milk toast. maybe just to get bob dole's heart beating again?

[gratuitous]

2. Let's see, nine months to gather facts

Six months to meet and go over drafts of the report. Three months to argue about the majority and the minority reports, and two months to publish it will take us to November 2008, when the whole thing can be shit-canned by a Bush administration that couldn't give two hoots about all the wounded soldiers they created. Next stop, Paraguay! Arrrrrrriba!