The spectre of government death panels was clarified with Jim Towey's piece in the Wall Street Journal about the "Your Life, Your Choice" program mandated by the Veterans Administration. Today, Towey appeared on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace where Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth also appeared. Duckworth, by the way, wanted to be interviewed separately. Duckworth is one of our wounded warriors (she lost her legs in Iraq) and deserves to be honored as a hero for that. However, today she was simply a dishonest political hack who could not admit she was lying about the VA's use of the controversial materials. Kimberly Morin has been following the "Your Life, Your Choices" story for the Boston Conservative Independent Examiner and has extensive links to the relevant documents.
You can read the transcript of the Fox News Sunday interview here.
In the following segment, Senator Arlen Specter announced his support for Towey in regard to the VA issue, but again attacked the "death panel" straw man. The Dems' strategy for fighting this is to pretend that Conservatives mean that there will literally be a committee that votes on whether or not people will live or die.
There are two very real issues that give meat to the "death panel" concept. First, is the undeniable reality that health care rationing will be a part of any government managed program. This is true in every country with socialized medicine. It is a concept endorsed by Tom Daschle, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel and other health care advisors to President Obama, so why are they surprised that Real America is alarmed by the idea?
Secondly, a party with a financial stake in the outcome (the government) would be "advising" people on very serious and personal issues about health care outcomes and their options. Leftists are right when they argue that there is no language in HR3200 that specifically discusses how these choices would be presented to people. That is part of the problem! The American people are being asked to place their faith in the federal government to create an independent bureaucracy that will supply people with information without pressure or suggestion. Yeah, that's how government agencies usually operate, right? The exposure of the VA's use of an "end-of-life" program endorsed by the Hemlock Society rightfully concerns folks that such is the judgment of the government in life-and-death matters.
The lies told today by Mrs. Duckworth will only exascerbate the public trepidation about allowing the federal government to stick its nose in these decisions for all Americans. Our veterans deserve better than to have the usefulness of their life questioned by the government they fought to defend. This practice should not be used to advise our "heroes." And it certainly should not be expanded to included all our citizens at the most vulnerable times in their lives.
Showing posts with label death panels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death panels. Show all posts
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Jim Towey Demonstrates The Death Panel Threat Is Plainly Real
Statist Democrats and their Big Media allies have been in full attack mode since Sarah Palin used the term "death panel" to describe government panels that will be involved with advising patients on end-of-life decisions under their version of ObamaCare. They have whined about the use of the term "death panel" and have claimed that opponents are claiming that euthanasia is written into the bill. The Leftist-Liberal-Progressive-Socialist-Democrats have constructed straw men and have diverted the argument in order to avoid discussing the very real implications of government involvement in such personal decisions.
An editorial by Jim Towey in the Wall Street Journal illustrated this threat. He writes about the "Your Life, Your Choices" program introduced by the Clinton-era Veterans Administration, suspended by President Bush, and recently reinstated by President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama.
No Conservative leader has suggested the bills being discussed include the word "euthanasia." Nor are they saying that the panel will sit around a table and decide whether each individual lives or dies. Those are the straw men constructed by Leftist ideologues who do not want to discuss the very real implications of government-mandated boards. The VA program pushes folks who have manageable issues to believe they are hopeless burdens on their families. The fear, and a legitimate one at that, is that the boards established under these bills will be able to steer folks toward an early check out.
Mr. Towey is not an opponent of advance directives. In fact, he created the widely used "Five Wishes" program for assisting folks with end-of-life decision making. His work in this field makes him particularly qualified to analyze the possible ills of ObamaCare's provisions.
Leftists and their Big Media cheerleaders do not want to have an honest discussion about the issue. The bill does not provide a lot of specific information, but it does open some very disturbing doors. That is part of the problem. We don't know what these end-of-life panels would look like. We do not know how they would present the information. The Left tries to use that vacuum in details to make the case that ObamaCare opponents are inventing bogeymen where none exist. In fact, it is this tabula rasa that rightfully scares thinking Americans.
We know that the VA is pushing our patriotic veterans through a program produced by the Hemlock Society. We know that in Oregon's state system, a board can offer to pay for euthanasia as they refuse to pay for care that they do not feel has a high enough probability for success. We know that Obama's health care advisors, including Tom Daschle and Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, are proponents of limiting the use of expensive treatments on elderly citizens because they don't have much left to offer society. We know that this is the one area of health care where the government could use its power to dramatically cut costs. We also know that rationing of care is the rule, not the exception in other countries that practice socialized medicine. We also know that, in the Senate, amendments to limit the ability of a government board to behave in this way were rejected by the Democrats.
Whether or not euthanasia or rationing are on the menu, the point is that government should not be in a position where they can influence the life and death decisions of citizens. Over 50 new bureacracies, most of which would be designed later, are included in the House bills. The American people are being told "trust us" by a class of people who are among the least trustworthy on the planet. Real America doesn't trust Congress, President Obama or the Big Government Media. Fear, intimidation, and misinformation will not silence a growing body of patriots.
An editorial by Jim Towey in the Wall Street Journal illustrated this threat. He writes about the "Your Life, Your Choices" program introduced by the Clinton-era Veterans Administration, suspended by President Bush, and recently reinstated by President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama.
"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."
When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?
One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.
I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update "Your Life, Your Choices" between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as "Compassion and choices").
No Conservative leader has suggested the bills being discussed include the word "euthanasia." Nor are they saying that the panel will sit around a table and decide whether each individual lives or dies. Those are the straw men constructed by Leftist ideologues who do not want to discuss the very real implications of government-mandated boards. The VA program pushes folks who have manageable issues to believe they are hopeless burdens on their families. The fear, and a legitimate one at that, is that the boards established under these bills will be able to steer folks toward an early check out.
Mr. Towey is not an opponent of advance directives. In fact, he created the widely used "Five Wishes" program for assisting folks with end-of-life decision making. His work in this field makes him particularly qualified to analyze the possible ills of ObamaCare's provisions.
If President Obama is sincere in stating that he is not trying to cut costs by pressuring the disabled to forgo critical care, one good way to show that commitment is to walk two blocks from the Oval Office and pull the plug on "Your Life, Your Choices." He should make sure in the future that VA decisions are guided by values that treat the lives of our veterans as gifts, not burdens.
Leftists and their Big Media cheerleaders do not want to have an honest discussion about the issue. The bill does not provide a lot of specific information, but it does open some very disturbing doors. That is part of the problem. We don't know what these end-of-life panels would look like. We do not know how they would present the information. The Left tries to use that vacuum in details to make the case that ObamaCare opponents are inventing bogeymen where none exist. In fact, it is this tabula rasa that rightfully scares thinking Americans.
We know that the VA is pushing our patriotic veterans through a program produced by the Hemlock Society. We know that in Oregon's state system, a board can offer to pay for euthanasia as they refuse to pay for care that they do not feel has a high enough probability for success. We know that Obama's health care advisors, including Tom Daschle and Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, are proponents of limiting the use of expensive treatments on elderly citizens because they don't have much left to offer society. We know that this is the one area of health care where the government could use its power to dramatically cut costs. We also know that rationing of care is the rule, not the exception in other countries that practice socialized medicine. We also know that, in the Senate, amendments to limit the ability of a government board to behave in this way were rejected by the Democrats.
Whether or not euthanasia or rationing are on the menu, the point is that government should not be in a position where they can influence the life and death decisions of citizens. Over 50 new bureacracies, most of which would be designed later, are included in the House bills. The American people are being told "trust us" by a class of people who are among the least trustworthy on the planet. Real America doesn't trust Congress, President Obama or the Big Government Media. Fear, intimidation, and misinformation will not silence a growing body of patriots.
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