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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (161842)	2/27/2009 12:48:00 AM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362456

Many times those guys walk right across my front yard. It is a trip to walk out your front door and see one of those guys just sauntering by. They pay no attention at all. Supreme confidence-lol.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (161842)	2/28/2009 8:23:15 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 362456

Sebelius Named by Obama to Chief U.S. Health Role (Update2) By Aliza Marcus Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Health and Human Services Department, giving her a major role in the president’s push to ensure all Americans have affordable health care. The president asked her to take the post today, and she accepted, an administration official said. Obama will announce the nomination the afternoon of March 2 at the White House, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. Her nomination is subject to approval by the Senate. Obama’s previous nominee to the post, former Senator Thomas A. Daschle, withdrew after lawmakers raised questions about his late payment of taxes. Obama wants to move ahead with plans to overhaul the U.S. health system, and this week he presented Congress with a budget that envisions spending $634 billion over 10 years to begin the changes. “She’s very knowledgeable about health care and up to speed on the substance of it,” Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health-policy scholar who has advised Democratic politicians, including Obama, said in a Feb. 27 telephone interview. “She offers being a creative thinker with the right instincts about where to go.” Sebelius, 60, whose second term as governor runs through 2010, has been vocal about the need to expand government- subsidized health programs for children and the Medicaid plan for the poor, said Glendon Cox, chairman of the health policy department at University of Kansas in Kansas City. Income Limit Raised The Republican-controlled Kansas legislature last year agreed to raise the income limit for the state’s subsidized insurance program for children whose parents earn too little to buy private coverage and too much to qualify for Medicaid. The income limit for families of four was increased to $53,000 from $42,400. The state still must find the necessary money to put the expansion into place. Obama is a supporter of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which the federal government jointly funds with states. On Feb. 5 he signed a law that more than doubles U.S. funding to about $12 billion annually from the current $5 billion. “Politically, she’s pretty savvy because she’s been trying to move a reform agenda throughout a conservative state,” Thorpe said. Sebelius previously served as the Kansas insurance commissioner. She was the first commissioner to reject a proposed conversion of a nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield into a for-profit company, slowing the pace of such conversions nationally. Affordable Options Obama proposed during his campaign to restructure insurance markets to provide more people coverage. He said at the time that he wants to give people more affordable options and bar insurers from denying people coverage because of their medical conditions. As a candidate, Obama also proposed creating a new public plan, similar to the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, to complete with private insurers. “Health-care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year,” Obama said in his first address to a joint session of Congress this week. To contact the reporter on this story: Aliza Marcus in Washington at amarcus8@bloomberg.net Last Updated: February 28, 2009 18:58 EST