GOP, Don't Be Comforted by Sebelius' Resignation

Townhall.com ^ | April 15, 2014 | David Limbaugh
As horrible as Kathleen Sebelius has been as this nation's health and human services secretary, she has been exactly who President Barack Obama has wanted her to be. This was no rogue incompetent tinkering with America's health care. This was one of Obama's chief lieutenants, one who was doing his bidding every step of that treacherous road they traveled together. Don't get me wrong; Sebelius was inexcusably bad -- arrogant, defiant, uncompassionate, dogmatic and unrepentant. Obama cashiered her only because it was time to deflect blame from himself and change the channel. There is nothing incompatible between assigning major blame to Sebelius for all aspects of Obamacare and also squarely placing the primary blame on Obama for all of it. There is plenty of failure to go around, and they all own it. It's kind of like United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. She doesn't get a pass for her role in spreading the unconscionable lie that the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was caused by a video just because her sinister superiors, all the way up to Hillary Clinton and Obama, ordered her to do it. They are all in it together, duping the American people with malice aforethought -- with zero accountability and no apology. Ever. But unlike that of Rice, Sebelius' role wasn't limited to a mere multiple-time major-media drive-by where she did the administration's dirty work. Sebelius was not just a subordinate mouthpiece. She oversaw the genesis of the oppressive tangle of regulations for implementing Obamacare, which, among other things, have run roughshod over Americans' conscious rights and religious freedoms. This woman has been shameless and improperly political in a position that is supposed to involve anything but partisan politics. In 2013, she admitted she had made telephone calls to three separate companies that her department is responsible for regulating and urged them to help promote Obamacare. She asked Johnson & Johnson, Ascension Health and Kaiser Permanente to support the work of Enroll America, a nonprofit led by formed Obama administration officials that was working with the White House to publicize Obamacare and help uninsured people sign up for coverage. These statists have no problem blurring the lines between the proper and improper activities of government. Everything is fair game if it advances their agenda. Of course, Sebelius justified her actions without a "tinge" of contrition, blaming Congress, in effect, for making her do it because it didn't allocate enough money for the sacred cause of socializing our health care. Sebelius, as you will recall, also used a secret email address to conduct official federal business, in keeping with Obama's pledge to be the most accountable administration in the history of the multiverse. She brazenly used Obamacare as an excuse to push the administration's agenda on comprehensive immigration reform, complaining that "undocumented" people wouldn't have access to tax credits or the glories of the Obamacare insurance exchanges. But if you think that was the best example of her hubris, think again. The day before the launch of the now notorious Obamacare website, Sebelius boasted, "We're about to make some history -- and I think some very positive history for lots of families in the country." Also, Sebelius was all over the arbitrary and discriminatory Obamacare exemptions Obama passed out like Halloween treats and wholly unconcerned that businesses received the exemptions when individuals didn't. She has been just as dishonest as Obama in skewing their sign-up figures as a triumph when fourth-grade math students could tell you they didn't come close to signing up the requisite number of people to make the law work financially, especially by their self-imposed deadline. She and Obama have been equally dishonest about the millions who have lost their insurance as a result of their highhanded law. If you think Sebelius is no longer in a position to damage this nation after her resignation, be advised that she has already trashed America in a speech to the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado at Boulder, happily blaming America for spreading bad habits such as tobacco and "overconsumption" to the rest of the innocent world. Don't assume that Obama's proposed replacement for Sebelius will be any less ideologically driven and deferential to Obama than Sebelius has been. Let's not forget -- not that the liberal media would ever let us forget -- Obamacare is Obama's "baby" and he's not about to delegate superintendence of his signature infant to one not in sync with his radical agenda. No conservative should be rejoicing at Sebelius' departure as if it were occurring in a vacuum. No matter how badly Sebelius messed things up, Obama was the one who picked her -- and then didn't want to be bothered with any problems. He's too important a fundraiser to be sidetracked with trifling matters related to people's livelihoods and health care. Celebrities were waiting. Republican senators had better do a better job of vetting Obama's nominee to replace Sebelius -- Sylvia Mathews Burwell -- than they did when they joined Democrats to unanimously confirm Burwell as White House budget director. Time for some real scrutiny for a change. It is inconceivable that she would be an impartial administrator.