As Steve Hayes noted last week, the person Obama chose to put in charge of tort reform is an ex-trial lawyer lobbyist:
Now Obama says he's going to study the issue. "I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today," he said.
That would be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, whose resume includes eight years as director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.
The Washington Post asked its Twitter followers for questions for an interview with Kathleen Sebelius this week, so I sent them one: "How does Sebelius plan to reconcile her long history with the trial-lawyer industry with her attempts to do tort reform?" Lo and behold, the Washington Post asked my question (it's at 7:55 in this video). Her response:
"I think I'm just the person to do it because I think I understand the system of litigation very well. I understand that we want to, as the President has always said, compensate injured victims, but the defensive medicine is not helpful to the overall cost in the system. The best opportunity is to raise the quality of care and lower medical errors, so there are lots of strategies we can put in place."
Indeed, as I've consistently said, the fox is uniquely qualified to guard the henhouse, because he understands the delicious taste of poultry very well.
