November 30, 2009 • Vol. 15, No. 11
Download Now! (pdf)

Contributors
Editor (on leave):
Michael Goldfarb

Deputy Editors:
John McCormack
Samantha Sault

Contributors:
Jennifer Chou
Brian Faughnan
Ulf Gartzke
Mary Katharine Ham
Reuben F. Johnson
Thomas Joscelyn
Stuart Koehl
John Noonan
Bill Roggio
Search
Archives
Contact
wws@weeklystandard.com
Categories
Feeds: Atom | RSS
[What is this?]



« Signs Point to More Troops for Afghanistan | The Blog home page | Left Finds Upside in Economic Collapse »

Sebelius: Hey, My History With the Trial-Lawyer Industry Makes Me Uniquely Qualified to Handle Tort Reform

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.

Email the article Sebelius: Hey, My History With the Trial-Lawyer Industry Makes Me Uniquely Qualified to Handle Tort Reform to a friend:

Send this article to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):