Kennedy Taps Clinton For Health Care Reform Job

Fourteen years after failing to deliver health reform for her husband's White House, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will play a key role in advancing the issue in 2009 -- if she remains in the Senate.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) designated Clinton to head a task force to develop a Senate Democratic proposal to expand health insurance coverage as part of his larger push to move a major overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system next year.

Kennedy's designation of Clinton as one of three senators to lead a healthcare task force provides her with an opportunity to make a significant contribution to an issue that has defined her political career.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[dajay]

If this is Ted kennedy's way of helping Obama not give the position of SOS to Hillary, why is the vetting process still going on?

[funkalicious]

Where was Hillary at Walmart when the Walton family shafted the workers out of health care, I would say MIA? Is she gonna make those SOB's pay today?

It will be what is best for Hillary Rodham the rest of us be damned.

[bodo]

Excellent plan that would still allow her to run for President in a future year, whereas no former Secretary of State has made it to President since the 1800s.

[rockyb26]

i'm so happy about this! i was hoping they would give her more authority with health care! she's needed so much more in the healthcare debate than as SoS. thanks sen. kennedy!

[exhale09]

Go for the HEALTH CARE Plan Hillary! It's your area of expertise and passion, and we NEED you to do this!

[vippy]

Clinton's healthcare proposal is aweful. We cannot afford to have the IRS come after us after we
cannot pay the mandated premiums. That is insane. If I wanted that I would have voted for her!

[KMan1]

She still has to stay within the parameters of the Obama plan so I wouldn't worry about her mandate. That horrible idea died with her campaign.

[nanapat]

and Kennedy would be there to oversee that..

[exhale09]

For all the talk about Clinton for SoS, I hope she declines the offer and stays in the Senate and works her magic to pass a GREAT Health Care Plan, finally vindicating her first attempt. It has long been her passion, and she has learned much since then!

Hillary is a great effective Senator, I'd like to see her working on Education too! People do their best work when they are passionate about what they are doing.

[nanapat]

She is more effective as a Senator and I hope she realizes that .. Look at the great role Kennedy has created for himself in the Senate and she can do the same thing and help create great policies that help all people..

[barbie1212]

Ted looks amazing!!!!! I thik that this would be a much better job for Hillary because I don't want her shady ways around Barack. He may want unity and a different kind of politics but Hillary is out for herself, always has been and always will be. I'm happy she got people to stop talking about Sarah Palin but I just think that Clintons and all their friends need to go away, and:

I think that Rahm Emanuel is the leak because the first story to leak was Obama asking him to be chief of staff. The second story to leak was the contents of the meeting between Barack and President Bush. The third was Hillary Clinton vetting for SOS and the fourth Eric Holder. The other people who have access to this info didn't leak for two years. He's the only new addition to the picture.

[bodo]

In politics there are leaks, and then there are deliberate strategic "leaks" that are just intended to test the water. As Nixon used to say: "Let's run this idea up the flagpole, and see if anybody salutes it."

[siney]

sen. kennedy looks so good!

[ChicagoSuz]

This is a much better job for Hillary!

[klondiker]

I have a feeling now that the SOS is not going to happen.

My guess is that the vetting process didn't really work out, and slowly, Clinton will withdraw herself from consideration. I think she has gradually started to send signals (like today's news that she is torn about leaving the Senate).

Or, the whole thing was a political ploy. She was never really under serious consideration, and the Obama camp just wanted to give her the respect of making it known publicly that they considered her for a top position (especially after it was leaked that she was never considered for the VP slot).

Either way, I'll be a little disappointed.

[exhale09]

Whatever....I believe Hillary would really SHINE working to pass a Health Care Bill!

What a feather in her cap...and great satisfaction for her that would be!

[mom2sons]

It was a ploy so she could go back to the Senate with something important to do. Bill Richardson will now be SoS. They are not really opening up the books. LOL....She can turn it down gracefully and he can accept gracefully and Chelsea get a job. LOL

[MrPragmatic]

Sorry Teddy, you are a little late, our new president has tapped HRC for SOS!

[Rice]

So much ado about nothing. Only pundits in the media have said that barack offered her SOS. No one at all from the Obama camp have officially said that he offered her the post. least of all BO. At best, they agreed earlier on before she camre on side, that this rumor would in effort to make her look like a contender for ego sake. At the end of the day, as much as I despised her during the primaries and compared to what McPalin said and did during the GE, what she did against our PE than she did. And we won. So if in the offset chance that BO did choose her, I would have to trust his judgement. I doubt that it was ever seriously in the cards. Honestly, if the media didn't speculate on this, they'd actually have to report some real news.

[rockyb26]

exactly

[foreffectivegovernment]

I can only think Teddy is trying to make up for helping Richard Nixon screw sick Americans with the HMO act of 1973 which allowed Edgar Kaiser's HMO, Permanente, to make a profit from the denial of Healthcare to Americans.
As Richard Nixon stated on tape, "All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make." This is how it was foisted on the American people. In the Senate, (Senator Edward) Kennedy, author of the HMO Act, also encouraged its passage: ``I have strongly advocated passage of legislation to assist the development of health maintenance organizations as a viable and competitive alternative to fee-for-service practice. This bill represents the first initiative by the Federal Government which attempts to come to grips directly with the problems of fragmentation and disorganization in the health care industry. I believe that the HMO is the best idea put forth so far for containing costs and improving the organization and the delivery of health-care services.'' This is how it became law. On December 29, 1973, President Nixon signed the HMO Act of 1973 into law.

[lynjs]

We need Hillary in the Senate to fight for healthcare. I know because I'm in need of it now and can barely get the doctor. My brother had to pay for the appointment two weeks ago and four times since then at $100 each time I go. And I still have a balance and need tests that I can't get because I don't have money.

That is a disgrace in this country. People are dying and don't have to all because they have no money. Hillary could be the catalyst to fixing this mess.