Tom Daschle’s decision to withdraw his nomination as Secretary of
Health and Human Services after revelations that he had failed to
pay more than $120,000 in back taxes will not only embarrass
President Obama in the short term, but it will be a major setback
in his administration’s push for universal health care.
The former Senate majority leader earned Obama’s loyalty when he
backed the junior senator from Illinois over Hillary Clinton way
back in February 2007, when Obama was considered by many to be
long-shot candidate and could claim few prominent endorsements.
Daschle advised Obama,
provided him with fundraising lists, and helped him staff his
campaign. After Obama won the election, Daschle could have asked
for just about any position in the administration, but he made it
clear that he was interested in the HHS slot.
While Daschle wasn’t particularly known as being an expert on
health policy during his time in Congress, he began to develop a
passion for the issue after being ousted from office in 2004. His
interest culminated with the release of his book last year,
Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis,
in which, among
other proposals, he advocated the establishment of a Federal
Health Board that would oversee the health-care system as the
Federal Reserve Board oversees the banking system.
When President Obama nominated Daschle to lead HHS, he gave him
the additional role of director of the White House Office of
Health Reform. This was a symbolic position, but one that carried
a clear message: health-care reform was going to be a top
priority for the new administration. Daschle would be not only
running the bureaucracy of HHS, but leading the effort to craft a
health-care proposal, and, most importantly, using his vast
legislative experience to shepherd the plan through Congress.
“Tom brings more than just great expertise to this task, he
brings the respect he earned during his years of leadership in
Congress,” Obama said in announcing the pick in December. “He
knows how to reach across the aisle and bridge partisan divides.
And he has the trust of folks from every angle of this issue:
doctors, nurses and patients; unions and businesses; hospitals
and advocacy groups — all of whom will have a seat at the table
as we craft our plan.”
Obama’s choice of Daschle was cheered in liberal circles, raising
hopes that this time the outcome would be different from Bill
Clinton’s failed effort at health-care reform in 1994. That
effort was famously led by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and
business consultant Ira Magaziner, neither of whom had any
legislative background.
With Daschle out of the picture, Obama will be hard-pressed to
find somebody who combines the passion for the health-care issue
with practical legislative talents. It is unclear whether Obama
will decide to split up the role of HHS Secretary from the new
White House Office of Health Reform position.
“It really sets us back a step,” Sen. Dick Durbin
said, according to the AP. “Because he was such a talent. I
mean he understood Congress, serving in the House and Senate he
certainly had the confidence of the president.”
Sen. John Kerry
echoed Durbin’s comments. “This was no ordinary appointment
and today is not a good day for the cause of health care reform,”
Kerry said, according to the Washington Post. “Tom
brought a unique level of legislative skill and experience to
this position, in addition to his passion to achieve affordable
health care for every American.”
Even if Obama finds a suitable replacement for Daschle, this
debacle will mean a potentially costly delay for health-care
legislation.
Daschle has been spending the last few months laying the
groundwork for health-care reform. Before being officially
announced as Obama’s pick for HHS, Daschle gave a high-profile
talk in Denver about his health-care vision and he was already in
touch with some of the major players in the industry. Nancy
Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association,
told TAS that Daschle had reached out to the leading
physicians’ group shortly after the election.
When he was officially announced as Obama’s choice for HHS,
Daschle quickly emerged as the public face of the health-care
reform effort. He traveled around the country to host health-care
discussions aimed at generating grassroots support, and
recorded videos for the change.gov transition website.
As things were, it was going to be difficult to make a
comprehensive overhaul of the health-care system a part of the
agenda for the first 100 days. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), who serves
as chairman of the health subcommittee of the House Ways and
Means Committee,
said on a December conference call that realistically,
Democrats were unlikely to vote on a comprehensive health-care
reform proposal until early in 2010.
If the process gets delayed much beyond that, then the Obama
administration will start having to worry about Democrats who
want to avoid a tough vote during an election year. That could
push things into 2011, and nobody knows what the political
climate will be like then.
To be sure, proponents of national universal health care still
have a lot going for them. President Obama remains popular,
Democrats hold substantial majorities in both chambers of
Congress, and businesses and industry groups are much more
amenable to reform than they were the last time around.
But there’s no doubt that Daschle’s withdrawal complicates the
Obama administration’s ability to strike while the iron’s hot,
thus adding an extra layer of uncertainty to a cause that has
eluded liberals since Harry Truman was president.
