'Death panel' disputes erupt at Florida GOP congressman's town hall (THE BIG LIE)

Now that we have passed the Obamacare bill and lived with its consequences for a few years, a new administration of the opposite flavor means Democrats can no longer hide, but they can still rally their supporters to scream against this most insidious reality. Other Democrats up for reelection would like to ingratiate themselves with voters by secretively opposing this consequence. I do have a hard time buying into the idea there is a single panel, because I think politicians are much better at obfuscating their intentions. Maybe he just didn’t push through to his conclusion or CNN cut the story short.

However, I remain of the opinion that this mess is so harmful in so many ways, that the only cure is complete repeal coupled with simultaneous passage of bills not more than five pages long and written in the Arial font with 12 pitch. (I am dreaming, right?) These bills would salvage the few legitimate thoughts existing and address the host of ways in which government intrusion into delivery of healthcare is unreasonable. Anything less gives Republican and Democrat politicians (read patricians) too much power. I think the worst consequence of the bill is the damage done to human freedom as I explain in the below essay I wrote at the time of Sarah Palin’s statement.

The U.K. Telegraph and others awarded Sarah Palin a prize for telling the greatest political lie of 2009. In fact, her following statement discloses one of many deceits within health care legislation. Next follows an explanation of how this outcome will be realized.

"The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's ‘death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Her anxiety arises from seeing hordes of new bureaucracies provide the framework for boundless regulatory masterpieces eroding human freedoms. The stimulus bill created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Health Information Technology Research Centers. These bureaucracies duplicated private sector information bases, utilizing computer technology for coordination and flow of recommendations and policies for medical knowledge. Now passage of HR 3962 and Senate legislation adds over 100 new boards, commissions, and programs. For example a new Medicare Commission, exempt from judicial review, will unilaterally write rules about utilization and pricing of medical devices and drugs often needed by surgeons. The Independent Payment Advisory Board will make decisions about allowable level of Medicare funding for therapies.

The HHS Secretary will use these bureaucracies to reflect Congressional intent; not the will of the people. The regulations will utilize disquieting legislative provisions, selected legislator speeches, and selected expert testimony. Regulations will incorporate ideas politicians consider too sensitive for public debate. Medical professionals will join other private sector professionals such as education financial aid directors and CPA’s I know, who often serve as federal agents instead of client advocates.

Princeton bioethics professor Peter Singer recently presented in the New York Times Congressional intent without equivocation. “Rationing health care means getting value for the billions spent by setting limits on which treatments should be paid for from the public purse….There’s no doubt that it’s tough – politically, emotionally, and ethically - to make a decision that means that someone will die sooner than they would have if the decision had gone the other way….The task of health care bureaucrats is then to get the best value for resources they have been allocated….If a teenager (think millennial) can be expected to live another 70 years, saving that life gains 70 years, whereas a person of 85 can be expected to live another 5 years, then saving the 85-year-old (think the Greatest Generation) will gain only 5 life-years. That suggests saving one teenager is equivalent to saving 14 85-year-olds”.

Peter Singer’s scientific approach reminds me of the Geneva Conventions, which attempt rational, moral threads to grasp during wars’ barbarity. For my Navy experience pulverizing a major enemy base in Vietnam, I especially liked the clear and obvious reading of Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The VC were responsible for any civilian deaths in the base we shelled. Those civilians qualified as Protected Persons within the enemy’s physical control, and could not be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations.

The passages furnished the basis for rules of engagement we followed when attacking a legitimate military target. Distance provided me the blessing of avoiding clean up after-wards for the mess I helped create. However, I am certain our task force was an effective “death panel”. We permanently shattered that VC main force unit, forcing it to surrender the region to South Vietnamese control.

Government bureaucrats will apply similar detached patterns of analysis to those which enabled our ship to apply over 400 rounds of naval artillery to a VC base camp. Politicians will use the implementation process to certify infallible bureaucracies and to disconnect consequences of their actions. The resulting health care regulations will place everyone on pathways to federally defined, cost effective, approved treatments. Seniors and the disabled will hold second class citizenship, because popular philosophies, as discussed above, find these people deficient in societal contributions compared to active workers and youth.

When Sarah Palin speaks of an “America I know and love” she understands that federal administrative laws and regulations are the soft underbelly of our Constitution. Pursuit of happiness means spiritual prosperity within the hazards and uncertainties of personal freedoms. Once again politicians offered enchanting material security, while obscuring subservience to rules vastly increasing their power. This legislation attacks our Bill of Rights by confiscating speech and religious freedoms, personal life without access to courts and trial, and Ninth Amendment personal freedoms guaranteed, but not enumerated by our Constitution.

The "Costs" of Medical Care http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2009/11/03/the-costs-of-medical-care-n1088569

ObamaCare ‘death panel’ faces growing opposition from Democrats http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/316045-obamacare-cost-cutting-board-faces-growing-opposition-from-democrats

Why We Must Ration Health Care http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19healthcare-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

RAW DATA: GOP List of New 'Bureaucracies' in House Health Care Bill http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/02/raw-data-gop-list-new-bureaucracies-house-health-care/

Text HR 3200 for GOP List of ‘Bureaucracies’ http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3200rh/pdf/BILLS-111hr3200rh.pdf

Health Care Bill H.R. 3590 Thomas(library of congress) Signed By Obama http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf

Republicans release more complex Obamacare chart http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003844/ http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2010/jul/28/republicans-release-new-more-complex-obamacare-cha/

so, democrats jam these town hall meetings ?
check out the manufactured signs. Do repubs do that at their meetings ?

Of course the term "death panel" does not occur! They're not going to name it that, they named it "Independent Payment Advisory Board".

When word got out that panels would determine whether a procedure would be paid or not, the panel idea was dropped. In its place was "end of life counseling"

Does the writer of this drivel “news” story know that the phrase “separation of church and state” is not located anywhere in the Constitution, but Progressives spout that B.S. phrase every single day!!

So EFF-OFF! Rationed care is B.S. care! As a combat veteran, I begged the VA to remove screws from my ankle (which were supposed to be removed within 12 months after discharge). I had to get my private doctor to remove the screws because the local VA said that removal of the screws would not guarantee at least a 70% improvement, so I would never get approval for the surgery!!

THAT is what rationed, Government-controlled healthcare looks like!! In time, THAT is what Obamacare will turn into, guaranteed! And the panel which will be making these type of go/no-go decisions will be deciding people’s right to LIFE or DEATH!!

....Bilirakis was the next lawmaker to face constituents outraged....

CNN provided NO PROOF that everyone in this crowd was an outraged constituent!

Affordable Care?

The BC/BS premiums for a male my age in Florida went from ~$150/month to ~$500/month.

I always thought it would be valuable to recover one of these signs. You might be able to find out who paid for them.

A cancer drug costs the same to develop whether 1,500,000 or 2,000,000 million Americans get it.

Rationing really doesn’t save much money.

A physician assistant costs about $100/hour.

My wife has an individual policy that has gone from $250 to $600 per month in five years. Now we cannot been collecting until we have shelled out $7,000.

I got covered by the VA and then got upgraded when my exposure to Agent Orange was approved. I think some of the best advise I received though was from the woman who said I should take Medicare and supplement coverage as well. If I win the lottery I think I will save the money to pay for at least one bad illness without letting the government have any part.

If I were a congressman and this were my district, I would have large armed guards stationed at the door checking ID’s. I would only allow people into my town hall who actually lived in my district. Period. No out of state or out of district people allowed in to disrupt - they don’t have a say in my district. Problem solved.