Kathleen Sebelius’s Political Cronyism Problem: Obama Appointee to HHS under Investigation for Misused Medicaid Funds

Once again Obama cannot choose an appointee who is not ethically challenged.

Centrist, milquetoast Democrat Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) hopes to resign from her position as Governor of Kansas in order to assume the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services under her friend Barack Obama. But she is yet to be confirmed for the position by the Committee of jurisdiction in the US Senate. Sebelius endorsed Obama during the primaries immediately after she delivered a hopelessly boring and soporific response to Bush’s State of the Union Address last year. Staging a media event on behalf of the sexist and misogynistic machine that undemocratically secured Obama the Democratic nomination, Sebelius is owed a favor.

She was considered for the position of Obama’s Vice Presidential running mate, but sexist Obama chose a man named Biden instead.

Tom Daschle’s lobbying and tax problems created a vacancy in the Cabinet, however, and now Obama can finally reciprocate the favor Sebelius performed during the primary. Too bad Sebelius may be just as controversial as Tom Daschle.

According to the Kansas City Star, Republicans in Kansas are investigating the mismanagement of Medicaid funds under Kathleen Sebelius. This is relevant, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services oversees and supervises Medicaid. The article explains how a not for profit organization politically connected to Sebelius received $713,000 in extra Medicaid funds at a time when state agencies told other service providers that no Medicaid funds existed.

Lenexa-based Community Living Opportunities was awarded nearly $713,000 in extra Medicaid funds. The group serves developmentally disabled Kansans, primarily in Johnson and Douglas counties.

At the time, the agency’s board of directors included Kansas Democratic Party Chairman Larry Gates, a Sebelius confidant, and his former law partner, Dan Biles, whom Sebelius appointed to the state Supreme Court this year. Lew Perkins, the University of Kansas athletic director, also serves on the board. Biles has since stepped down from the board.

The allegations come as Sebelius, a Democrat, awaits U.S. Senate confirmation to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Medicaid.

Neither Sebelius nor Gates was at the hearing Wednesday. But Sebelius has said she had nothing to do with the funding decision, which was made by Don Jordan, her secretary of social and rehabilitation services. Gates also has denied speaking to Sebelius about the funding request.

Yet other service providers maintain that the state told them no extra funding was available. They told lawmakers at the hearing Wednesday that Community Living Opportunities was allowed to skip the usual process of requesting extra funds, which involves going before a local agency that oversees such requests.

Carolyn Risley Hill, chief executive of Starkey Inc., a Wichita-based service provider, worked for the state for 20 years and said she never saw a provider get the special treatment that Community Living received.

Community Living Opportunities, a service provider connected to Sebelius, received a grant at a time when other service provides of Medicaid were told no funds existed. But even worse, this organization did not have to complete the usual process to gain these extra funds. These reeks of political cronyism, of special treatment, of quid pro quo politics. More egregious, however, is how this cronyism involved Medicaid funds, funds that are usually spent to provide health care to the disabled.

How did Community Living Opportunities, the Medicaid provider politically connected to Sebelius spend the extra funds? Here is the Kansas City Star:

Yet at the same time Community Living petitioned the state, it was developing a 40-acre ranch in Douglas County for use as a therapeutic equestrian and activity center for its clients. The property cost $400,000, Community Living executives told lawmakers Wednesday. A home, stable and swimming pool have been built.

At a time when they were petitioning state government for more Medicaid funds, Community Living Opportunities was building an exclusive ranch with luxurious amenities on a piece of property that cost $400,000. And they were allowed to circumvent the process whereby providers normally apply for such funds. Medicaid, in other words, went toward a ranch to be used by the politically connected and the powerful. Funds for the disabled instead went to a ranch that in many ways resembles a resort.

And Obama thinks the person who may have been responsible for funneling Medicaid dollars to a politically connected organization that obtained that money while they were building a ranch should manage the nation’s Medicaid funds? Will Medicaid dollars now be funneled to Obama’s political contributors who will invest it in property or use it to build resorts? Why does this remind me of Rezko?

The Kansas state legislature is investigating the matter, and more and more questions arise as they probe deeper and deeper into the connections between Sebelius and her friends at Community Living Opportunities. Daschle had tax and lobbying problems, and Sebelius has what appears to be a political cronyism problem at the expense of the indigent and the disabled. Is someone who views funds for the indigent and the disabled as cash for political allies fit to serve as Secretary of Heath and Human Services? Is she the one who should be managing the nation’s Medicaid funds?

And when will Obama finally learn to vet those he nominates to his Cabinet?