Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Our friends on the left continue to call it the “lie of the year” but for some reason these non-existent death panels are being protected by specific and extraordinary legislative language:

“it shall not be in order in the senate or the house of representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

What does that section deal with? The Independent Medicare Advisory Board. These guys are going to determine what will be covered and what will not, who will get treatment and who will not. Dare I say it a “death panel”?

Sarah Palin dares to say it. Explicitly:

In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?

The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reid last week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:

“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.

Amazing how this stuff that doesn’t exist keeps being propped up by the democrats in legislation. Her willingness to stand out front and say these things aloud is the primary reason why she is so hated and why she must be destroyed.

BTW look at google news, isn’t it odd that a a readers survey of a web site is being trumpeted as fact in paper after paper?