While you were sleeping the Senate voted 52-47(Claire McCaskill did not vote) to confirm Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price:
BREAKING: Senate votes to confirm Georgia Rep. Tom Price as Health and Human Services Secretary
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 10, 2017
This was the round that Democrats were supposedly gearing up for, because Price has a vision for repealing Obamacare. They’re apparently so sick of losing that they didn’t even bother.
Price has an incredible record, but that’s apparently something the folks at Politico didn’t feel was newsworthy.
Not Budget Chairman. Not 30-year orthopedic surgeon. Not 7-term congressman.
“Obamacare opponent.”
You guys really are terrible. https://t.co/Caw0ZUmrwI
— Ellen L. Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) February 10, 2017
Liberal media shenanigans aside, this is an important moment for Trump’s presidency, and the Conservative movement. As the Daily Signal notes, Price’s appointment means that efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare can proceed:
The seventh of Trump’s 15 Cabinet members to be confirmed, Price faced sharp questions and obstruction from Senate Democrats despite his familiarity with issues related to HHS from his time in Congress. Democrats demanded to know how he would make sure millions of Americans don’t lose health coverage, and sought to make an issue of a broker’s purchase of health care stocks for Price.
“Just gaining coverage for individuals is an admirable goal, but it ought not be the only goal,” Price told the Finance Committee during a Jan. 24 hearing. “We must have a goal in health care, especially to keep the patient at the center and realize what kind of care and coverage we’re providing for people on the ground. For people with real lives.”
Price authored the Empowering Patients First Act, a patient centered plan to replace Obamacare and make insurance more affordable by increasing competition and expanding consumer choice. If anyone’s qualified to build the post-Obamacare future, it’s Tom Price.
