Monday, February 23, 2009
As reports about the future of Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Kansas’ government circulate, students are wondering what will happen if Gov. Sebelius becomes President Obama’s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Sebelius had not had any talks with Obama about becoming the next Health and Human Services secretary. But advisers close to the president said she was top on the list.
Alex Herman, Hays second-year law student, interns for Rep. Eber Phelps (D-Hays) and said the mood in Topeka was tense.
“It seems like everyone’s on edge waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Herman said, adding that the loss of Gov. Sebelius would shift the balance between the Republican and Democratic parties.
Sebelius announced in November that she would refuse any cabinet positions and would put Kansas’ budget crisis first. The legislature was at a standstill on the budget, debating budget cuts on education until last Tuesday.
Jesse Vaughn, Mound City senior and president of KU College Republicans, said that although losing the Democratic governor would be positive for the Republican party, it would be a loss to Kansas overall.
“She was good at crossing party lines,” Vaughn said.
Bill Walberg, El Dorado Hills, Calif., senior, said that he was confident in Sebelius’ drive and passion, but that he didn’t know whether she was prepared for the huge role of taking on a Cabinet position. The Department controls Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration on Aging. It controls a quarter of federal spending with a $737 billion budget.
Sebelius has emphasized the importance of health care in the past. In her response to President George W. Bush’s 2008 State of the Union address, she said, “We are stronger as a nation when our people have access to the highest-quality, most-affordable health care.”
According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2007, 16.4 percent of U.S. citizens under the age of 65 didn’t have health insurance. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had been Obama’s pick to streamline America’s health care problems before his personal tax problems forced him to drop out of the running.
As Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Daschle said, he would push for universal health care by expanding the federal employee health benefits program to include private employer plans together with Medicare and Medicaid.
Herman said Sebelius would have her work cut out for her, but said her focus and emphasis on health care in Kansas would help prepare her to take over where Daschle would have started. He said universal health care would be great if Obama’s pick could get it off the ground.
“We live in a country where we have a lot of the best doctors in the world, but it’s also one of the most expensive places in the world if you get sick,” Herman said.
Check Kansan.com for updates on Sebelius’ plans.
— — Edited by Grant Treaster
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Comments
Students contemplate Sebelius’ future
I work at a medical center in new york and follow the heath care crisis. We need your Governor Kathleen Sebelius to help us get through this. She is well versed and respected in the political community. Kansas's lost would be the United States gain.
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