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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hhs-secre...d=23282636
"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will announce Friday she is stepping down, ABC News has confirmed.
The president will nominate Sylvia Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her.
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Shortly after news of Sebelius’ resignation broke, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus took the opportunity to predict “that there are more problems on the way” for the president’s signature health care reform law.
“The next HHS Secretary will inherit a mess -- Americans facing rising costs, families losing their doctors, and an economy weighed down by intrusive regulations,” Priebus said in a statement. “No matter who is in charge of HHS, ObamaCare will continue to be a disaster and will continue to hurt hardworking Americans.”
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Sebelius has been a passionate champion of causes she believed in, especially expanding access to health care, parity for mental health care, and care for children.
But ultimately she was on the wrong side of the "digital divide," age-wise, and when things started to go wrong with healthcare.gov that became embarrassing apparent. Her younger replacement will likely manage all that better, but I doubt she'll do any better dealing with Republicans on health care policy. That is DOA.
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My girl lobbyist,
you make my heart go
giddy up
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My girl lobbyist,
you make my heart giddy up
Go lobby girl, go.
******************
Haiku 101.
Eustace
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Lemon Drop wrote:
But ultimately she was on the wrong side of the "digital divide," age-wise, and when things started to go wrong with healthcare.gov that became embarrassing
:oldfogey: I BEG your pardon ? Ageist much there ? :oldfogette:
Age has nothing to do with the ability to run a large IT project. I've worked with program managers in their 70's who kick the butts of 20 something 'experts'.
What happened is what happens in ALL federal IT contracting. The job turns into a giant Foul Up. Courtesy of federal contracting rules and laws, which are designed to maximize inefficiency and minimize the chance of success. Yet another Congressional foul up.
It's also important to note that she did not run the project. She was the executive in charge. And she trusted her 'experts' to give her the straight news. They failed, so she failed. In the end her mistake was bad management.
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cbelt3 wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
But ultimately she was on the wrong side of the "digital divide," age-wise, and when things started to go wrong with healthcare.gov that became embarrassing
:oldfogey: I BEG your pardon ? Ageist much there ? :oldfogette:
Age has nothing to do with the ability to run a large IT project. I've worked with program managers in their 70's who kick the butts of 20 something 'experts'.
What happened is what happens in ALL federal IT contracting. The job turns into a giant Foul Up. Courtesy of federal contracting rules and laws, which are designed to maximize inefficiency and minimize the chance of success. Yet another Congressional foul up.
It's also important to note that she did not run the project. She was the executive in charge. And she trusted her 'experts' to give her the straight news. They failed, so she failed. In the end her mistake was bad management.
with all due respect, this is not about you and it's not "ageist." I'm being kind to the Secretary in ascribing her problem to age.
Sebelius demonstrated in TV interviews that she was clueless when it came to technology. That's why she got bumped down as spokesperson, she embarrassed herself and the administration. Those are just facts.
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Lemon. my point was that age is not the factor, being a clueless idiot is. Someone who knows they have NO grasp of technology should not be used as a spokeswoman for a technology project. And with the 'leader must know all' dynamic that American politics demands, she should not have been chosen to lead the project. The pooch was well and truly screwed at many levels, but ultimately it was her responsibility.
But again, age has nada to do with it. That was my point.
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FWIW.. they've proposed her replacement.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/04/...ry/360530/
"Imagine someone came to you and said, "I will give you this job where you manage one of the most complicated, least popular, and most politically toxic things in the government, but before you get the job, a bunch of senators will be intentionally harsh to you to improve their political positions." President Obama made that pitch to Sylvia Mathews Burwell and she — inexplicably — said yes."
This lady has ovaries of titanium !
(yes, weird, but it's a female equivalent to 'brass balls'..)
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Speedy wrote:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is out
I didn't even suspect she was gay.
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cbelt3 wrote:
Lemon. my point was that age is not the factor, being a clueless idiot is. Someone who knows they have NO grasp of technology should not be used as a spokeswoman for a technology project. And with the 'leader must know all' dynamic that American politics demands, she should not have been chosen to lead the project. The pooch was well and truly screwed at many levels, but ultimately it was her responsibility.
But again, age has nada to do with it. That was my point.
I see what you're saying and that makes sense. This lady did not even know what the concept of a website crashing meant, she didn't know the basic lingo that most of us take for granted. I do think age is part of that, a younger person simply couldn't escape understanding that stuff better.
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