WASHINGTON — Republicans are getting ready to pick another fight about ObamaCare, this time over President Obama’s new choice to oversee the national health plan.
Obama announced Friday that he’d nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell to succeed Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary.
Burwell, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, is well regarded by both parties for helping work out a budget deal, but she won’t necessarily be spared a grilling in the Senate, where Republicans will try to get her on record about the problems with the health-care law’s rollout.
“I think Burwell presents an ideal opportunity to examine the failures that are ObamaCare,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox News.
One senior Senate aide said Republicans see confirmation as “an opportunity to litigate the major problems with ObamaCare.”
But stopping Burwell’s confirmation would be a tall order. Democrats, who have 55 votes in the Senate, could push her through with a simple 51-vote majority.
Obama praised Sebelius Friday at a Rose Garden ceremony — where she lost a page of her farewell speech.
“Unfortunately, a page is missing,” Sebelius blurted out.
The president admitted Sebelius got “bumps” and he got “bruises” during the rollout but said she would “go down in history” for overseeing a massive expansion of health care.
“Her team at HHS turned the corner, got it fixed, got the job done, and the final score speaks for itself,” he said, referring to the 7.5 million who signed up for coverage.