Posted on 08/11/2009 10:13:55 AM PDT by Maelstorm
Sarah Palin's charge healthcare reform would lead to government run "death panels" is simply "nuts," Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said today.
In an interview with Ezra Klein, Isakson said that aspects of the legislation that deal with end-of-life planning have nothing to do with euthanasia.
Here's the relevant section:
Q: How did this become a question of euthanasia?
ISAKSON: I have no idea. I understand — and you have to check this out — I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin's web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up.
Q: You're saying that this is not a question of government. It's for individuals.
ISAKSON: It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.
Q: The policy here as I understand it is that Medicare would cover a counseling session with your doctor on end-of-life options.
ISAKSON: Correct. And it's a voluntary deal.
Sarah Palin had written on her Facebook page that the House healthcare legisltion would lead to government "death panels" deciding which members of society were productive enough to receive healthcare.
(Excerpt) Read more at briefingroom.thehill.com ...
ISAKSON: It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.
The bill specifically references cessation of nutrition & hydration - a deliberate terminal act.
Another who hasn’t bothered to read the bills but thinks they know what is in it. The “mandatory” part of it makes the government inject themselves into it!
Don’t blame me! I voted for Hermann Cain!
Geeez, someone needs to remind the good rep the sainted Renaldus Magnus’s Eleventh Amendment...
Oh CRIPES! I meant COMMANDMENT...too quick on the post button....no more coffee....
Isakson made a fortune in real estate. Then he decided he wanted to be in politics. Over the years he has run for (and lost) just about every major political office in GA (talk about not being willing to start at the bottom) using his own money to back his campaigns.
He used to be very liberal for GA (strongly pro-choice, etc...) Finally flip-flopped his positions and managed to get elected to the senate.
If you know Mitt Romney, you know Johnny Isakson.
A rich guy that thinks he is entitled, his core convictions lean a little left, but says whatever he needs to get elected.
Isakson is part of the problem. He rarely sticks his neck out to push conservative issues (or any other for that matter), instead just keeps his head down, stays non-controversial, and looks forward to getting elected again.
LOL...I think he just got controversial.
When we turn out those clones who vote for this monstrosity in 2010, we’ll then see who was more believable....Palin or Isakson
Point 1 - The good Senator needs to look at this from a broad spectrum. President Obama has discussed at length the ‘need’ for IMAC - the ‘independant’ (appointed) board who will decide what care is and is not acceptable care, testing, or treatment regardless of your own doctor’s opinion. The equivalent board in our more ‘progressive’ friend nations routinely determines acceptability of care by cost, age, and survivability.
Point 2 - When the doctor calls and tells a senior that their ‘counseling’ session is due most seniors will make the appointment and the doctor will get paid for the visit. The doctors who will be performing such counseling are the doctors operating within the ‘system’ and bound by the dictates of the IMAC.
Thus we get a potentially nefarious circle of advice, care, and government dictates. And that, Sir, is unacceptable in America. We don’t want systems where our only failsafe is trusting the government. That is not freedom - that is not America!
I agree they will find out.
Checking a new tagline.... this post is basically gibberish
They are irrelevant. Here is the point that these idiots don’t seem to understand that the left understands far too well. You don’t defeat our political enemies by playing nice or meeting them in the middle. Actually that is how liberty, and conservatism is repeatedly defeated because each time they move the line and if any one of these idiots who claim to be conservative are not alarmed but the beast that has risen in Washington D.C. then they are not fit to be allies.
We have a government that has, in effect, sanctioned the murder of 50,000,000 unborn babies. That the government would set up death panels for other "undesirables" is not only not nuts but quite possible. (and with the obama crowd running things, highly probable)
You have that right. Socialized medicine is the nail in the coffin of liberty. People who support it seem to think they will pay nothing for it. They will pay with their very souls before the beast is done.
There is an old saying, that if a squirrel ran up a politicians pant leg he would come back empty handed.
He is my Senator. I just called his office and gave them both barrels.
You are so correct Senator Johnny Isakson, obviously, contrary to Obama's own stated views, the government required end of life counseling will be used the reassure patients that nothing will be spared to help them as their health declines.
/S
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