Medicare Chief Scully Says He's 'Checking Out of Dodge'

[stevedeshazer]

Could be subtitled: Another Republican Golden Parachute

Thomas A. Scully, the outspoken administrator of the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid -- the public health insurance programs for more than 70,000 elderly, disabled and poor Americans -- said last night that he has turned in his resignation.

An often colorful figure in a largely buttoned-down administration, Scully is part of a nucleus of senior advisers to President Bush who shaped the administration's policies on the landmark Medicare legislation that Congress passed last week.

<snip>

He said that he has "been talking to a bunch of law firms" and planned to decide on a job in the next few weeks. He said that he had stayed in the administration nearly a year longer than intended and that he was leaving "totally for personal reasons" -- to spend more time with his three young children and find more lucrative work. "I love the job," Scully said. "It's been a great experience."

Last night, Scully said that he informed HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson in May that he wanted to leave, and that Thompson asked him to stay to work on the Medicare bill. At that time, Scully said, he obtained an ethics waiver from the department's general counsel that he said allowed him to begin having general conversations with potential employers.

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29781-2003Dec2.html

________________________________________________________

Mission Accomplished!

Time to cash in with a private sector job. Bet this guy makes a boatload of money...now that Medicare cash is leaking in to Wall Street. :grr:

[ILeft]

1. "an ethics waiver"........is that a Bushism?.....eom

n/t

[stevedeshazer]

2. I was wondering about that

How do I get an "ethics waiver"? I'd bet it has something to do with that $2,000 per plate thingy.

[MurrayDelph]

15. In the Bush administration

you can wave (sic) good-bye to any ethics requirements
(on Republicans).

[specimenfred1984]

3. He'll Now Advise Firms How Not-to-Cover Elderly People

Or, how to cover them at a 300% increase.

If there's such a thing as "karmic cancer", I'm wishing some his way!

[dusty64]

4. Interesting.

Put the plan to gut the program in place and get the hell out.

[saigon68]

5. See this HORSESHIT at the Defense Dept a LOT!!!!

Top General, Admiral or Civilian Administrator---goes to a big Defense Contractor and cashes in---

Or the Latest SCAM---This same person hired by a CONSULTING FIRM and uses old contacts to obtain the Contract for the Defense Firm for a FEE--

Disgusting----- kind of like a PIG at the PUBLIC TROUGH

[loudnclear]

6. Law firms? He knows there are going to be lots of suits over the reform

Going to cash in now!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. No he is going back to those firms to get his payoff

Prior to assuming responsibility as CMS Administrator, Tom served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of American Hospitals, the trade association representing the nation’s 1700 privately-owned and managed community hospitals and health systems from January 1995 to May 2001.

Previously, Scully was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Patton Boggs, LLP. His practice focused on regulatory and legislative work in health care. Before joining the law firm, Scully worked at the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1992-93, and as Associate Director of OMB for Human Resources, Veterans and Labor from 1989-92. In these positions, he oversaw the fiscal policy and regulatory review of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor and Veterans Affairs. He also advised President Bush on health care policy, Medicare and Medicaid payment reform.

http://www.hhs.gov/about/bios/cms.html

The only presidential candidate who I have seen address this is John Edwards....the others need to get online and CLOSE the revolving door from industry to administrative posts and back to industry.

[prolesunited]

8. But he got an ethics waiver

so I'm sure it makes everything OK? :puke:

:wtf: is an ethics waiver — a free pass to engage in unethical behavior?!?!?!

But it's OK because they're Repukes. I bet if a Dem tried this, they would be all over it. Where are our spokespeople on this?!?!

[Beetwasher]

9. I Suspect The "Ethics Waiver" is the Gold Card

It probably means it will allow him to now go and work for firms who just directly benefitted from legislation he crafted, got passed helped implement and therefore knows inside out, including all the loopholes and how to best profit from it.

[UpInArms]

10. beautiful summation

of the situation.

thanks!

[Hand]

11. Time was...

They called this a Get Out of Jail Free Card!

:mad: :nuke: :grr:

[catzies]

17. I propose we call the BFEE the "Ethics Waiver Administration!"

Ethics waivers drafted our energy policy, got us into perpetual war, and are bankrupting our futures.

[tom_paine]

12. Our spoksepeople are overwhelmed, flooded, confused...

They are so invested in the Old American Republic they cannot see the forces which are destroying it...and them.

Plus, the absolute lack of a Left-Wing Sub-Media to counterbalance the Bushevik Sub-Media is being shown, given the monstrous infotainment evolution, to have been a grievous error?

Did our spokespeople deign "not to sully themselves" by countering such a fascist move? Or did they just never catch on because they couldn't believe the Busheviks cared not a whit for "The System" and that they would glady destroy it to possess the ashes?

Who knows? At some point, motivations become irrelevant and all that exists is what happened...

However, if there is an afterlife, I expect some very interetsing note-comparison going on between our Democrats and the 1933 German Social Democrats.

[stevedeshazer]

13. Kick

Just heard it on CBS radio news. I hope it makes more people aware. Scully was portrayed as cashing in.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B8D3027F5-9B08-42F4-AB62-075F3ED84E62%7D&siteid=google&dist=google

[Cocoa]

14. this puts a face on the special interests

something for the dem campaign ads, along with Cheney.

[Fovea]

16. I would assume that an ethics waiver

much like the storehouse of grace through which plenary indulgences erased sin, can only come from a higher ethical power.

Where exactly, would such a thing reside in the American Government of 2003? SCOTUS?, Congress? ... the feakin Boy Scouts of America? Where???

This is a corrupt trough from top to bottom and side to side. The few ethical ones are immersed in the fetid pus that is the Republican party rule.

Nineteenth Century America had Urban Machine politics.
The Twentieth Century saw first Urban vs rural party division within statehouses, then Suburban vs Urban party division.
The Twenty First Century is creating a one party Federal Totalitarian Machine.


Look at PNAC and realize that they are creating a New America, a land of Spartan and Helot. You, and everyone you know is probably a Helot.

Bush Sr. is quite fond of Central American Patronage Peonage systems.
Why does he like them? Because they share common values. So does Junior, though enounciating exactly what those values might be is beyond him.

Stop it with a ballot in 2004, or stop it with bullets in 2006. Call me Cassandra, call me a fruitcake, but that is how I see it, and it has been heading that way since 2000.

PS: On a related note.


It would not take a change in Democratic social policy to win back the rural vote. It would take a demonstrated committment to small farmers, and to dismantling the corporate/agricultural economy. Take it away from CEO's and boards, and return it to family farmers. Re vamp the Dept of Agriculture to promote sustainable farming and ranching at a sustainable market price.

That would be a perminent improvement in the economy and environment. We were paying attention to other things while it got taken over in the 80's, I guess. But it is a real hellhole out there in the stix now. Why else do you think we have a meth problem out in small town America.

These voters are pissed not so much because they think that Urban Democrats are for minorities, as much as they think we are against them; that we sold them out. And we did.