Note that the new angle is to blame it on Bush. The difference is that Bush made it possible for doctors to be compensated for engaging in discretionary end-of-life counseling sessions with their patients. That wasn't intended to promote the practice as a way for Medicare to limit healthcare costs, but rather to recognize that it is a legitimate use of time for doctors to engage in such discussions as a discretionary measure to ensure that the patient's wishes are known and respected as the responsible individual for making any such choices.

Boehner wants to shelve health care 'monstrosity'

Later version of the story

May 12, 2010 - Heartland Institute: CMS nominee Donald Berwick's radical agenda

September 2, 2009 - If you doubt what Daniel Hannan has been saying about the British health care system, have a look at this article - Sentenced to Death on the NHS in the Daily Telegraph (UK).  Note the hundreds of comments, such as personal examples of end of life care by the NHS / NICE bureaucrats.

Democrats hope Medicare checks in the mail will help - Later version, positive spin.   How many seniors like to be treated as suckers? Do they like the idea of their votes being bought off? Don't they deserve and expect more respect?

Does anybody think that nothing else can be cut in these state budgets, other than programs which they can use for political demagoguery in this election year to try to save their own failing careers?

June 7, 2010 - Progressives criticize White House, Democrats - The loons still aren't happy.  As they undermine any "moderate" or "conservative" Democrats, the choice for voters will be stark.

IRS issues rules for health tax credits

New tax credit for small business health care

Moral of the story: support Joe Walsh and other principled conservatives who won't just stick their finger in the air and try to figure out which way the political winds are blowing today.

Catholic hospitals support health care bill - seeking political cover for funding abortions

March 7, 2010 - Obama's health care pitch to Democrats: Trust me

He has openly declared war on the American people through this action today.  He may be choosing to use his nuclear option as a first strike, but we will mutually assure his destruction in November.

Backroom health care deals fuel voter anger - Comment:  Really?  This is news to whom?  It is hard to believe that this would still come as a surprise to anyone after the town hall meetings of last August, or the rise of the Tea Party movement. It just shows how completely out of touch party "leaders" have become, thinking themselves to be statist rulers now who can simply tell us to sit down, shut up, and let them to do whatever they want. The Republicans should laugh at the State of Delusion address tonight.

Obama urges Dems not to 'jam' health care past GOP

Health bill at stake, Obama to stump in Bay State and Obama, congressional Dems near health care accord - still trying to ram the health care bill through despite public opposition.  Massachusetts could actually lead a patriotic revolution again with the political shot heard round the world.

Scott Brown for US Senator (R - MA) - http://www.brownforussenate.com 

later version of the same story

There'll be a price to pay in November 2010, too.  Political career death panels.

Meanwhile, nobody has listened to the Republicans, or to the many angry voters who will have no voice until the 2010 midterm election.

Check out American Seniors Association, as mentioned in this August 18 Fox News story about the AARP losing 60,000 members already.  Another option is the 60 Plus Association   Welcome to market competition, AARP!

See what Conservative Allies of Pennsylvania have suggested as an Action Alert for their members.

Am I missing something?  Is this where we want to go in America?

There is more honor among thieves.  They ALL have to go - not just "moderate" pawns.

Schumer and Hutchison argue over health care bill

For an interesting perspective, check out Sarah Palin's Facebook notes page. Like her original warning about government "death panels", she isn't afraid to call it as she sees it. This is just one example of the potential abuses of power which will inevitably flow from this legislation and the bureaucratic nightmare it creates. It's not just about cost. This is tyranny, and continues to grow the sort of unlimited federal government that our Constitution was supposed to prevent if these people respected their oath of office.

Since they obviously don't, we have to organize and vote ALL of them out, starting in 2010 - not just the few so-called "moderates" who pretended to have principles before they were proven by their vote to have no more than the rest of their party colleagues. It may take us 6 years to be completely rid of them, but we will be the death panels for their political careers through each election before they finish the job of destroying our lives and our families.

The rationing of care by politically motivated bureaucratic "death panels" is ready to begin, all in the name of cost efficiency and standardization of care.  The policy may be a success, even if the patient dies, because it will help contain high health care costs such as cancer treatment by avoiding diagnosis.  Our mortality rates for cancer patients can rise to the more sustainable levels of other national health systems which defer diagnosis and treatment long enough to be rid of the problem.

By the way, don't miss the data on page 39.  In short, 31% have either lost their own job, or have a family member who has lost their job, within the last 6 months.  Would that perhaps shape their opinions?  Is that consistent with the alleged 10.2% unemployment rate?  Are they oversampling the unemployed?

Perhaps the media will at least cover some of the "pink slip" rallies on Saturday, such as the one in Nashville, which are giving "one year notice" to members of Congress. www.OneYearNotice.com

Later version of the same story

Path clearing for House to pass health bill - another version of the same story

Senate committee approves health care plan - Another Snowe job.  Why doesn't she join Specter?

So, Nancy Pelosi, you've got to to ask yourself a question. Do you feel lucky? Do you?

"This partisan proposal cuts Medicare by nearly a half-trillion dollars, and puts massive new tax burdens on families and small businesses, to create yet another thousand-page, trillion-dollar government program," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY. "Only in Washington would anyone think that makes sense, especially in this economy."

Surrender now? "Nuts!" Where's a Patton when we need him? At least the Tea Party Express is getting closer to Washington every day. Help is on the way. There will be better candidates for Congress in 2010. Americans will find them, and support them, to bring change to Congress.

US at 'breaking point' in health care crisis: Obama - "Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else even comes close."  "These are the facts. Nobody disputes them."  Wrong again, on both counts.  Repetition of lies doesn't make them true.  Health care is not the source of our deficit problem, and expanding the government role in health care will just make the situation worse.

They are still approaching this as a marketing problem, as in campaign mode. They don't get it that there is strong, principled opposition to many of their proposals even among people who accept that there is certainly room for improvement in our health care system. We didn't create the best health care system in the world by having government lead it. On the contrary, it is still the envy of the world (despite the price tag) despite several decades of government initiatives and burdens which have helped to escalate the costs.

It just transfers the price via the insurance companies so that everybody will hate them for raising premiums again, as opposed to hating the legislators for taxing them directly or cutting Medicare coverage for seniors. Expose this outrageous "trial balloon" before Obama's big speech.

Monty Python could spoof that because everybody in the UK knew that the National Health Service was a dismal failure, while the rulers were oblivious to the misery.  See what Daniel Hannan has said.

Have a referendum on how much American taxpayers are willing to pay for the benefits of all those government workers.  Don't let other Americans join that pool, and don't let them use regulatory powers to manipulate the medical prices they pay.  Make them ration their own care to live within their budget in a free market for health care.  Let them try to live with the consequences, not us.  If they want to cut out costly services to seniors, then let them limit their own health care first.  We manage to live on our tight budgets.  Let them manage on theirs.

Similar story - Obama to deliver health care address to Congress

They may have liked Obama's campaign rhetoric, but that doesn't mean they're ready to die for him now.   They are right to be very, very scared. This is probably the biggest government threat to their lives since World War II.  They thought the communists, fascists, and socialists lost long ago.  Instead, they're back.

While a living will makes sense, having the government encourage veterans to plan ahead for their death in order to avoid unwanted medical care to sustain their lives (at high government expense) is outrageous.  Why did the VA invest in producing and distributing this sort of death guide?  It would have been perfectly adequate to just follow existing practices, in which the government has already imposed rules (thanks to Medicare and other regulations) that hospitals must inform patients about living wills, and help them to prepare such documents.  Bureaucrats, if given responsibility over health care, will do more harmful things.

It's also a great source of power and money for politicians, as already shown by the millions of dollars in advertising which Obama has managed to coerce out of businesses which hope to profit from the changes, or to at least avoid being the target of harmful policy changes. That's like thinking that Putin has been trying to make the Russian oil and gas industry more efficient by taking it over. It's all about power.

Drug industry, Pfizer lead in health lobbying - Why is there so little concern about what the DNC and their supporters are doing to push their agenda, including Obama's "Organizing for America" activists?

This is just the first stage of a systematic liberal assault on our private health care system.  That includes development of a single system to consolidate the medical records of every American, and then "guidance" by government bureaucrats about what treatments should be acceptable.  This is very analogous to the awful nationalized health care systems of other countries.

If one simply ignores Tom Daschle's advocacy of such quick measures as the seemingly innocent foot in the door to create the infrastructure for nationalizing health care later, then one could blithely assume that this just expands some existing programs and adds a few new things.  Of course, the point is that this has everything to do with health care nationalization, and very little to do with the economic stimulus which was allegedly so urgent that it had to be passed without even taking time to read it carefully.  There is no reason why such health initiatives could not have been introduced and debated separately.  The point is that this was deliberately rammed through Congress almost before anybody noticed.  That raises a lot of suspicion about whether it is setting the stage for more surprises later.

HR 1 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus bill - House version as amended) pdf version as of Feb 10, 2009 per GPO - 1434 pages with revisions from Senate version and conference.  See page 811 about the "Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology" for $3 billion, and then page 904 "Promotion of Health Information Technology" and following references.  Note the section on page 969 about state matching funds initially and over the fiscal years ahead.

Do you want federal health bureaucrats to be able to tell your doctor what type of treatment is cost-effective or appropriate, or to have the power to delay, limit, or refuse treatment as in other national health systems?  Do you want your doctor to focus on what the federal health bureaucracy will fund, or on the care which you need?

The health care system of this country has some problems, including many which can be traced back to trial lawyers, but it has produced many important medical advances which benefit people in other countries who don't invest in comparable research and development or even reward it fairly through market pricing.  They use the power of government to try to manipulate and control their healthcare services, and the results are as bad as government intervention in any other markets, regardless of good intentions.  They create lousy services and scarcity, which leads to alternative markets for those who can afford to escape that bureaucratic tyranny.

Let them figure out how to efficiently ration their own care - and leave ours alone.

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