Sarah Palin Was Right #4: Peter Ferrara on Death Panels

More vindication of Sarah Palin's Facebook critiques of ObamaCare. Peter Ferrara writes in The American Spectator:

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Calling Sarah Palin a liar was most unfortunate given the speech on health care Barack Obama gave last Wednesday night. In that speech, President Obama accused his critics of preading "misinformation" and "bogus claims," of "demagoguery and distortion," and of "scare tactics" instead of honest debate. But all of that was most prominently featured in his own speech.

[...]

Obama even endorses in the speech the idea for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council, saying, "And we will also create an independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste [in Medicare] in the years ahead." Sarah Palin accurately explained what that is in a September 9 article in the Wall Street Journal, writing that such a commission would be

"...an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. In an interview with the New York Times in April, the President suggested that such a group, working outside of 'normal political channels,' should guide decisions regarding that "huge driver of cost… the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives."

In other words, this unelected, unaccountable commission operating outside of "normal political channels" would have the power to adopt still more Medicare cuts, focused especially on the most sick and those toward the end of their lives. Palin concludes:

"Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by -- dare I say it -- death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans."

President Obama expects credit for these Medicare cuts when promising "I will not sign a plan that adds…one dime to the deficit, now or in the future" and "The plan will not add to our deficit." But even with these Medicare cuts, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has officially scored the plan as adding hundreds of billions to the deficit.

Obama also said during the campaign that those earning less than $250,000 per year would not pay one more dime in taxes in any form. But under his health plan, individuals not covered by the health plan that the government specifies you must have will be forced to pay a special tax. Can you rely on anything he says?

That sounds like a rhetorical question. And it brings to mind the old Firesign Theater comedy line:

"The only thing we have to fear is me."

Which is rapidly becoming the hallmark of the Obama presidency.



- JP