Would you want this man running your Death Panel?
Posted on 11/18/2009 7:01:53 PM PST by presidio9
Congressman Earl Blumenauer says he's just a regular fellow "trying to get things accomplished." As a result, the Oregon Democrat tells me, he spends much of his time "looking for ideas that can bring people together -- simple, straightforward ideas that would help people and their families."
And so he proposed the infamous "death panels."
Really.
Before they were Palinized -- and turned into those nasty death panels ready to pounce on Grandma (that "goofy stuff," as he now calls it), Blumenauer had a good idea: help people prepare for the end of life.
As he wrote in The New York Times last weekend, the proposition was simple: "I found it perverse that Medicare would pay for almost any medical procedure, yet not reimburse doctors for having a thoughtful conversation to prepare patients and families for the delicate, complex and emotionally demanding decisions surrounding the end of life."
So, when he began work on health care reform, he included a provision that would allow Medicare to cover a voluntary doctor-patient discussion (only once every five years) about things like living wills, power of attorney and end-of-life treatment.
Oh, the horror.
Talk radio quickly got wind of the proposal when ex-New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey excoriated the measure as a depraved idea that would somehow counsel people to just go ahead and die faster. The absurd notion metastasized. And since Congress is the great lagging indicator, the bizarre interpretation predictably headed toward the floor of the two Houses. Republican leaders were unwilling to balk at a juicy opportunity to fan the flames -- even though the fire was fake. They courageously took on this great cause.
Soon after,
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Any “news” item from CNN is suspect to me.
I read this and thought, “Josef Mengele”.
All this stuff about “living wills, power of attorney and end-of-life treatment” originated in the doings of the Hemlock Society.
Before they got started bringing euthanasia and assisted suicide to our attention, and the New England Journal of Medicine picked up the euthanasia idea with considerable enthusiasm, it was presumed that the primary task of doctors was to improve health and save lives.
I suppose it’s just a coincidence, but doesn’t it strike anyone as a little odd that the guy who thought up these “death panels” is a congresscritter from Oregon, the original Suicide State?
At least Gloria Borger had no choice but to admit that death panels were real, if exaggerated.
When Palin pointed this out, CNN and friends acted like she was probably on acid when she posted it.
Would you want this man running your Death Panel?
Bingo.
BTW, the bill:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2389483/posts
Also:
http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/18/senate-health-care-bill-370-billion-tax-hike/#more-33402
Next Pelosi and Reid will be buying wooden soap, boxcars, and building fenced camps; only they will call it hospice car courtesy of the US Congress.
HEIL Blumenauer!
at first, i thought they it was about this guy... 
Earl is from my hometown - Portland, Oregon- he has been a far-left political operator for decades. He is a despicable, untrustworthy, self-absorbed idealogue, and a pain-in-the-ass self righteous, nanny-statist/elitist, a classic “useful idiot”. I despise him and all he backstabs for.
A.A.C.
No - Boomhauer makes more sense than Bloomin’idiot - errrr I meant Blumenauer...yeah yeah - sure I did.
A.A.C.
ping
The rationing of health care, already begun with mammograms, when applied to the elderly, using a Marxist social utility theory measuring the rest of their probable lives vs the cost of the care, will result in Utilization Review Panels making decisions that result in death for 100s of 1000s, effectively Death Panels.
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