And about those death panels…
This seems to make sense to me. It’s rational to imagine that this sort of rationing will absolutely be a part of Obamacare, either now or in the future. If it’s the hyperbole of the phrase “death panels” (as well as the fact that the hated Sarah Palin used it) that gets the goat of the Left, then let’s just call them “rationing of life-saving or life-extending care.”
We could call them “Terri Schiavo Mercy Panels.”
Any question how a kidnapped Leftist would want his/her family to respond to a ransom demand, with death if no payment, knowing his/her kidnappers may quite possibly kill him/her anyway since he/she could identify them?
Staving off a high probability of dying soon from any cause predictably draws down resources. Starving primitives eat their seed corn, knowing its significance full well.
The Ezekieloid logic goes straight back to the eugenic thinking embraced almost a century ago by American Progressives and German National Socialists. One of many bad ideas we just can’t seem to kill.
As with the Cap and Trade bill, the problem with the Health Care Reform legislation is that there isn’t just one or two or even a few horrendous proposals in it, but, rather, that it is all horrendous proposals– hundreds of them, any one or two of which could be a game changer just by itself; like end of life counseling, federal government access to all our bank accounts–to make it so much easier and more convenient for us to pay any premiums electronically, centralization of all health care records in a government database–solely for our convenience and to cut costs, of course, provision for home visits to “look in on” mothers of young children and to instruct them in proper, government approved child care regimes and proper educational regimes, too, the requirement that everyone in the country have a medical ID card–purely a convenience feature, doncha know, and measuring everyone’s value in terms of “Quality of Life Years” i.e. on average, a younger person will have more healthy, productive years left than will an elderly person and, therefore, the one with the higher number of Quality of Life Years remaining should have priority access to more health care options and treatment–and the list goes on.
Thus any “compromise” that has eliminated a few of the more horrendous proposals, that have been exposed and everyone knows of and objects to, will still contain hundreds of other proposals that are just as bad from the perspective of U.S. citizens preserving their currently functioning private health care system, their individual rights and their freedoms, especially those of privacy and of choice.
Palin put a response on her Facebook page last night to the President: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=116471698434
Ayn Rand said many years ago that in any compromise between good and evil, only evil benefits.
I will regard any “compromise” legislation that passes as a defeat for American liberty.
Sen. Grassley announced today that the end of life sessions will not be in any Senate bill. I’d say that “dumb” Sarah Palin won that round. Her use of poetic license in referring to death panels seems to have concentrated some minds.
Liberals over at DU are quite angry right now. They are convinced there will be no government run health care. They are worried that there will be some type of compromise legislation that will require all citizens to purchase insurance from private carriers. To them, this is the worst thing that could happen since it would tend to enrich the hated evil insurance companies.
Fascinating. Most of them are saying kill it now and start over again at a later date.
My husband suggests “I don’t believe in the death penalties but WILL decide the fate of innocents” panels.
I like the Terry Schiavo Mercy Panels myself…..
MikeLL Says:
August 13th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
In that case I actually agree with them. I say kill it now, and when the government goes bankrupt due to irresponsible spending, we won’t be hearing any more talk about socialized medicine.
Let’s not forget what Camille Paglia wrote just the other day:
“As a libertarian and refugee from the authoritarian Roman Catholic church of my youth, I simply do not understand the drift of my party toward a soulless collectivism. This is in fact what Sarah Palin hit on in her shocking image of a “death panel” under Obamacare that would make irrevocable decisions about the disabled and elderly. When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin’s shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate’s unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished.”
Now we’ve got Rahm Emanuel’s nepotic offspring, brother Dr. Zeke pleading his case. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and It’d probably work too – if he didn’t have the personal appeal of a dead fish.
Palin is no idiot. We’ve got these guys on the run, and it’s partly because she’s doing what she does.
Same ol same old. One of Obama’s games is to switch into legal / literal mode when it suits him.
Are death panels in the bill? No
Is single payer? No
Ergo, your nuts for saying such things might be on the way via it.
Ignoring that the way the bill works in the real world could easily result in one or both… which he well knows… He’s touted support for both in the past.
Vieux Charles Says:
“Palin is no idiot. We’ve got these guys on the run, and it’s partly because she’s doing what she does.”
There is a certain genius to her. The left will fire back about how she is an idiot instead of dealing with the argument… while the argument continues to get out there since a lot of people do listen to her. Now with the Obama quotes recirculating about the need to reevaluate end of life care… ahem… she’s winning the debate while the left just keeps screaming about her being an idiot…
In that case I actually agree with them.
Yes. I agree with them too. I think it is amazing that the current Democrat leadership is so inept that they have managed to anger the right, the center, and the left all at the same time.
There was a very revealing comment too on the thread I was reading:
ima_sinnic Sun Aug-09-09 02:09 PM if it’s going to FORCE me to buy “health” insurance, I too want it to die
I find that comment amazing. So he is ok if someone else pays for his health care. Not ok if he has to pay for it.
Everybody loves free stuff!! I saw this guy on TV talking about how in Spain, “health care is perfect and doesn’t cost anyone a dime!” Idiots…everyone will pay and pay and pay….
I wonder what Willie Shakespeare would say. I mean, after all, what’s in a name? 😉
With inevitable health care rationing under Obamacare, how about, “The Rest-In-Peace-Corps”?
Darrell’s comment recalls a P. J. O’Rourke line of a few years back, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it’s free.”
Today ThinkProgress is reporting that Palin was For ‘Death Panels’ Before She Was Against Them? Palin Endorsed End Of Life Counseling As Governor
In their article they state, “Palin urged public facilities to provide better information about advance directives, and made it clear that it is critical for seniors to be informed of such options”.
This is a far cry from what the House Bill drafted in Section 1233. Palin isn’t against living wills. She’s against the government paid consultants (sometimes the physicians themselves) stepping in with guidance that “addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones”.
She’s not the only one. Consider the comments of Democratic New York State Senator Ruben Diaz:
“Section 1233 of House Resolution 3200 puts our senior citizens on a slippery slope and may diminish respect for the inherent dignity of each of their lives…. It is egregious to consider that any senior citizen … should be placed in a situation where he or she would feel pressured to save the government money by dying a little sooner than he or she otherwise would, be required to be counseled about the supposed benefits of killing oneself, or be encouraged to sign any end of life directives that they would not otherwise sign.”
Which is why the Senate is excluding such a provision from their bill.
It’s obvious that Palin not only has some background on this, but she did her research. She also has support of people with differing political viewpoints.
The Think Progress article I mentioned can be found here:
For ‘Death Panels’ Before She Was Against Them? Palin Endorsed End Of Life Counseling As Governor
Asking medical professionals to make sure their customers know about the * existence* of advanced care directives, and what they can do, and asking *legal* professionals to volunteer to write them for folks is a far cry from paying doctors to write them for folks who are old or have had a change in medical condition, with the information offered regulated by the same source that is trying to cut costs.
Version one: “this is a useful tool. These lawyers can help you make one.”
Version two: “You’re not well. I, as your doctor, will tell you about ways you can save the government money!”