What is the Source for All These Scurrillous Rumors About "Death Panels"? Viral Emails? Sarah Palin? How About -- Barack Obama

Tom Maguire not only proves Obama's had his eyes on death panels for as long as he's been talking about the presidency, but that the NYT can't apparently operate the "Search" function on its own archives.

From the NYT's own interview with Obama:

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

LEONHARDT: So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

Ah. So we have "independent groups" making decisions out of the normal "political channels" (to avoid political pressure against their unpopular decisions) deciding which treatments will be refused to the elderly in order to reduce the costs of elder-care.

Because, of course, death is always cheaper.

But death panels? No. What a silly rumor.

By the Way: I see I've substantially copied Maguire's point, even with regard to word choice ("scurrilous").

Didn't mean to. I'm a bit space-headed today. The words just came to me. Of course, that was because I'd just read them at Maguire's. Pardon the inadvertent plagiarism.

posted by Ace at 03:14 PM

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