Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters today that unprecedented and “opaque” spending on television ads by shadowy groups is “dangerous,” sounding a political note that could indicate she has a future within the administration or on the ballot down the line.
“I have never seen a situation like this at least in my lifetime. The amount of money being spent is just staggering. … I think that’s pretty dangerous,” Sebelius said at a breakfast hosted this morning by the Christian Science Monitor.
Sebelius brought up campaign finance unprompted, and said she would prefer to see transparency since so many “millionaires and billionaires” are funding groups that pretend to be grassroots, especially to drive an anti-health care message. She twice called it “dangerous,” adding that it’s “pretty alarming.”
Sebeilus said the “untold story” of the 2010 elections is “not the tea party and not the health care bill, it is the amount of money that is flowing in districts around the country.”
She said she’s traveled to 28 states and candidate after candidate tells her there are “dozens of ads being run and nobody knows who is behind them.” She said President Obama was correct in his State of the Union speech criticizing the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
Sebelius said health care reform suffered in part because of hundreds of millions of dollars in television ads driving misinformation. “I get sort of frustrated at times,” she said.
Asked by TPM about her ambitions and why she’d push such a political message, Sebelius insisted she only brought it up because she felt the reporters there should more closely cover the massive ans secretive spending.
Will she run for president? “Oh, lord!” Sebelius exclaimed. Later, she said, “No time soon.”
The former governor of Kansas, Sebelius was a go-to surrogate for Obama during his 2008 campaign. Administration sources have long told TPM that she could be a good fit for multiple roles within the administration. She’s 62 and had a reputation for working with Republicans.
In a wide ranging discussion, Sebelius dished on outgoing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and health care policy.
As for health care, Sebelius said it remains unpopular in nation polls because it is “not an easy soundbite.” She said the best way to combat that problem for the election is to make the case personally.
“It has to be sort of by age group, by person,” she said. And as voters start to see the benefits kick in for their friends and family, “the debate about repeal becomes less conceptual and more personal.”
Reporters asked her about GOP promises to defund health care reform, and Sebelius said several programs, including one for early retirees and to create a bridge to the full implementation in 2014, could be jeopardized.
She said there’s one big thing the administration can do to prevent that from happening.
“We can win the elections, that’s step one,” Sebelius said. “Having run 8 times in Kansas as a Democrat, I tend to be optimistic about outcomes. I am not one of the people who believe that the House and Senate is going to be majority Republican come January. I could be wrong, but let’s start there.”
