President Gets Around Annoying Voters, Instills Death Panels By Regulation

Some of you may have missed this story since it was published on the day after Christmas (and a Sunday at that), but Obama’s death panels are back, this time via the president’s fiat regulatory powers. Since it was easy to have missed, I’ve decided to post the story today (Monday) so that more people might see it now that Christmas and the weekend both are over.

You might recall the end of life care policies that were once in Obamacare. You might also remember the political firestorm these death panels whipped up. The pressure was heavy enough that the Democrats removed the policy from the final Obamacare bill. Well, now that Obamacare is passed, Obama is slipping these death panels right back into existence by ordering Medicare to just make the policy a new rule under updated Medicare regulations. The controversial plan was originally meant to subsidize doctors if they offered end-of-life care counseling to their elderly or terminal patients. This advice was meant to push terminal patients to accept less than full life-saving care and instead to chose care that would ease them into death. Granted this sort of counseling is often a necessary (if regrettable) part of the last days of many people’s lives. It certainly makes sense for some very sick people to assess if further heroic care might not be the best use of resources and/or time. But here is the problem that arises with this whole program: it is government pushing the talk of ending your life. Do you want the same sort of folks that bring you the CIA or the DMV to be responsible to give you end-of-life advice, the kind of advice that could hasten your death? Is this new directive any different than the one that Democrats took out of Obamacare because the voters were against it all? Well, the guy that wrote the original death panel language that was removed from Obamacare sent out a message to his supporters celebrating Obama’s new fiat death panels in the Medicare regulation. But he urged supporters to keep it all hush hush.

We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are “supporters” — e-mails can too easily be forwarded. Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it.

In other words, the longer the public isn’t aware about Obama’s newest death panel efforts, the longer those that want to end the lives of the sick can keep their new rule. I think that says all you need to know about it all, really. In fact, that says all you need to know about the left. If their ideas become widely known voters are against them. So, if they find voters voting against them, then they just sneak them in by regulation or judicial order. Democrats and leftists think you don’t deserve to have any control over your lives, after all.

Warner Todd Huston——Bio and Archives

Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.

He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.