Sarah Palin has made the phrase "death panels" part of the national lexicon. Sarah brought to light the fact that any time you have a government take over of health care, you will have rationing of services, and someone in government, a nameless, faceless drone, will decide who gets life saving treatments and who is deemed "unworthy." Sarah has called this "downright evil," and we agree.
The new 2000 page PelosiCare fiasco takes 22 pages to set up the structure for these "death panels." (Pages 739-760) The "Comparative Effectiveness Panels" will be made up of doctors, bureaucrats, and experts on "health economics."
It doesn’t explicitly give government the power to dictate treatments. In fact, it does explicitly say that federal officers cannot dictate them, but findings by this panel will be used as baselines for payment by insurers, including the federal government, when it comes to deciding what options for treatment are available to whom. After all, comparative effectiveness is explicitly a rationing process.
Rationing, by definition, will lead to certain people who are deemed "past their usefulness to society" being denied life saving health care. Those coming up with the criteria for this are indeed "death panels."
As frightening as "death panels" are, this is just the start of what a run away Big Government nanny state can do to you. Once you let the Statist in, you are stuck with him, and he is not a nice guest.
This story comes from the United Kingdom, which has some of the poorest health care in the civilized world. The people are at their wit’s end, and the country is trying to figure out how to get away from their public system, their government controlled behemoth, and revert back to a system that makes sense.
Just how bad is the Big Government mess over there? Well, now their "death panels" are determining who is allowed to marry, and who is not. Who is allowed to have children, and who is not.
Hitler and Mengele would be proud. So would Chairman Mao.
Kerry Robertson, 17, and Mark McDougall, 25, haven’t broken any law. But they are on the run from the authorities, and from their home in Dunfermline, Scotland.
Less than eight weeks ago the couple were excitedly planning their wedding. They had booked church ceremony for the 5th of September, a Saturday. She had already chosen and bought her wedding dress. They had bought the rings, and invited 20 guests. Two days before the big day, however, social services told them that their wedding would have to be cancelled. Fife Council wrote a letter, objecting to the marriage, to Dunfermline Register Office, who consequently refused to marry the couple.
Social services claim Kerry cannot understand what marriage means, because she has learning difficulties. They are mild, it seems. She is able to read and write, and is going to college to "catch up." Her partner Mark told the Daily Mail: "'I didn't even know she had learning difficulties until we'd been dating for two months."
Kerry is 29 weeks pregnant – with a boy they have named Ben. "Although Ben isn't born yet," Kerry says, "I already love my baby and know I will be a good mum. Mark and I talk to him inside me every day and tell him we love him. We've already bought him clothes and my cousin, who recently had a baby, has handed down a beautiful crib for him."
Social services say that Kerry – a college student – isn’t intelligent enough to bring up her child with Mark. They plan to allow the couple only a few hours with Ben after he is born. Then Ben will be taken from Kerry and Mark, and placed with foster parents.
Let’s think about this for a minute.
Here are a couple of young kids in love. They were excited and planning a nice wedding, when all of a sudden, a Big Government drone steps in and through their own "expertise" decides they are not fit to be parents because the girl is a little "slow."
Under those guidelines, if adopted in America, would Barack Obama be allowed to keep his kids? I mean this is the guy that thought he had traveled to 57 states on the campaign, and had 1 or 2 to go. Would that make Obama a little "slow" in the eyes of the almighty bureaucrat?
Can you imagine?
This story isn’t something that happened in Hitler’s Nazi Germany or Chairman Mao’s Red China, this is happening right now in Scotland, a supposed free nation.
These aren’t mentally defective kids. The girl, Kerry, is in college for goodness sake!
Now I realize having a college "education" doesn’t equal smart, and certainly doesn’t guarantee common sense or ability, I mean look at the Ivy League buffoons who we have in charge of things now. Educated well above their intelligence, that’s for damned sure!
With that being said, just how "slow" could Kerry be if she managed to get herself in college?
Now I know, you are saying: "This is America, it can’t happen here." Uh huh, we were saying the same thing about ObamaCare and PelosiCare just a day ago!
The same people who are bringing you "death panels" here in America, and who knows what else are EXACTLY the people who will tell you who to marry and whether or not you will be allowed to keep your child.
Remember, Obama’s "Science Czar," John Holdren, thinks our Constitution gives the government the right to force you to have an abortion! Margaret Sanger is probably looking up from her Klu Klux Klan or Planned Parenthood meeting in hell, with great approval.
These people who will bring you "death panels" are the same people who have forced trans fats out of restaurants "for our own good." These purveyors of tyranny are the ones who have forced people to stop smoking cigarettes, a legal product, almost everywhere, including in some cases, their own homes.
These nanny staters who will run you "health care" are the people who are trying to tax soda water and other soft drinks and juices in order to get you to "modify your habits," you know, "for your own good." They also want to tax fast food, and even regulate where these eatin’ joints are allowed, again, for your own good, because well, you didn’t go to Harvard, and you are obviously too "slow." to get it!
Wait a minute, didn’t our "president" go to Harvard? Not a ringing endorsement for higher education, is it?
As Thomas Jefferson once said: "Any government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take away everything you have." That includes all of your liberties and freedoms. You know, like the freedom to get married and have a baby.
One should also reflect long and hard these words by Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would sacrifice their freedom for temporary security deserve neither."
You have a choice to make, right here, right now. Are you going to allow this government to pass this unconstitutional monstrosity known as Obama/Pelosi care, and lose every single ounce of your liberty and freedom, or are you going to fight these maniacal communists with your dying breath to retain your freedom and liberty, and the liberty of all of the future generations to follow?
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
Sarah is up bright and early this morning, no doubt enjoying the crisp Wisconsin air. Rather than muck it up with a bunch of commentary, let's get right to it:
Today at 6:47am
Like many Americans, I’m very concerned about the efforts underway to rush through the 2,000 page Pelosi health care bill this weekend. Why the rush? That’s a lot of pages to read. Why not give everyone the chance to read it and debate it?
How much will this bill cost us? It’s unclear because the figures coming out of Washington keep changing – and always in the direction of costing more, not less. The latest numbers show it will cost more than a trillion dollars over the decade, but when has a government program ever come in on or under budget?
How will we pay for it? Taxes, of course – and not just on the “rich” (you know, the people who spur the economy by buying goods and running companies that employ people), but also on just about everyone, especially small businesses – the job-creating engine of our economy. One of the points of health care reform was to help small businesses with the cost, but this bill hurts them – and right at a time when so many Americans are out of work and need the jobs that small businesses produce.
What’s in this bill? The “death panel” provision is in it. Medicare cuts are in it. Coverage of illegal immigrants is in it. And federal funding for abortion is in it. I commend the many Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who are taking a principled stance to fight this.
I had a message for Speaker Pelosi in a speech I gave last night for the Wisconsin Right to Life – “please, please don’t break the ‘transparency promise’ by prohibiting at least a vote of your colleagues on funding abortion-on-demand.”
Speaker Pelosi has already broken many promises thus far in this “reform” exercise. She promised that this would be a bi-partisan effort, but the bill she’s pushing isn’t bi-partisan. She promised that the final version of the bill would be posted online 72 hours before it comes to a vote so that the American people could clearly see what’s in it and how we will pay for it. But she broke that promise too when she decided to rush the bill to a vote this weekend.
The speaker must be held accountable for her broken promises. Now is the time for Americans who believe in the free market and who believe that we need policies that promote job growth instead of job loss to say once and for all, “Enough!” Stand up and make your voices heard before it’s too late. Call and email your representatives and tell them to vote “no” on Pelosi’s train wreck of a health care bill, or else we will vote “no” to sending them back to Washington when we go to the polls in less than 12 months.
- Sarah Palin
PS: For an idea of the bureaucratic maze that the Pelosi bill would create, take a look at this new chart put out by the Joint Economic Committee.
As usual, Sarah pulls no punches. She's telling the democrats in no uncertain terms that a vote for health care is as good as giving their employers, us, "notice" that they are no longer interested in being employed!
For those that may have missed it, Sarah is in Wisconsin this morning after giving a great speech with the Wisconsin Right To Life Crowd. While there will be more reporting on this to come, K. Carpenter over at Conservatives 4 Palin was there and has some great commentary:
First of all, let me start with how Governor Palin looked tonight. We all know that she is a beautiful woman, but that does not come close to describing how she looked. She was stunningly beautiful tonight. Maybe better than I have ever seen her look when I have seen her in person.
*****
The Governor wore her hair down, with the sides pulled back. Her hair has grown quite long over the last year. It looked fantastic.
As far as the numbers geeks are concerned, there were probably around 5,000 people there. The speech lasted about 35 to 40 minutes.
Most importantly, her smile was back bigger and brighter than any have seen in a while. To me, the most striking part of her appearance was her eyes. She has the glimmer back and her eyes were dancing around the room. She looks healthy, happy and full of life.
As she stepped to the microphone when the cheering began to die down, the Governor’s first thoughts were on America’s military forces. After asking all of our current military and veterans to stand, she asked for a moment of silence. She told us that during the moment of silence she would be saying a prayer and invited us all to do the same. After the moment of silence for the soldiers currently serving at Fort Hood, she immediately thanked our military personnel for their service to a raucous round of applause and cheers for our military.
The Governor then spoke briefly about her attachment to the state of Wisconsin. I believe she stated that one of her grandfathers was born in Chippewa Falls and her father went to school with Jerry Kramer (a Packer football star in the early 60’s).
Governor Palin then began to tell a story of a conversation she and one of her friends in Alaska had a few weeks ago. Her friend had picked up a couple of the relatively new $1 dollar gold colored coins. They were discussing what was missing off of the front of the coins. Those four little words that have gotten America through her most troubling moments, “In God we trust”. As she observed; those four little words have been pushed off to the side of the coin. No longer prominently displayed on the face of the coin but those words have now been hidden on the outer edge of the coin. As she observed, this is kind of where we, as a Nation, have shoved God in our own lives. She even stated that she had kind of done that with her own pro life movement. Yes, she was always pro-life but it was not really something she prominently displayed until she became pregnant with Trig.
Oh boy, when she talks about Trig, her entire persona just lights up. You can tell this woman is completely in love with that little boy. Governor Palin admitted that she was afraid before Trig was born on how she would handle a little boy with special needs. She also mentioned how she and Todd chose to work through the problems together.
The governor also spoke briefly about Bristol and the choices she had to make and the love and joy that Tripp has brought to their lives. Clearly, Governor Palin is very proud of her daughter and her grandson that is almost a year old. Governor Palin stated that people make mistakes but a beautiful child came as a result of that mistake. A mistake is no reason to take a life.
There were plenty of religious references that would send the lefties into spasms. It was rather refreshing to see someone speak of their religious beliefs at a political event. She even read John 16:13 to the crowd: "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative..."
To my fellow pro-lifers, this passage makes sense to all of us. The governor’s speech was so passionate and so full of love for all of God’s children. As she stated many like to call us “anti-freedom or anti-abortion”, but the truth is that we are “pro-children.”
Something else to make the liberal heads spin, she then progressed into the health care reform bill. Questioning why it is that lawmakers will not take the time to read the bill. Governor Palin also spoke of the need for Speaker Pelosi to allow an amendment to bar American taxpayers from having to pay for abortions.
This line of speaking brought us to my favorite line that the Governor stated this evening: Abortion is NOT health care.
Personally, this was my favorite line. These words are so very true. A baby is not something simple like a wart that you can just have removed; it is a life and that life should not be treated like every other health issue. (The whole wart analogy was mine, not the governor’s. I did get her point, though.)
Governor Palin spoke at length about the Pope, John Paul II. Pope John Paul II had a real passion for life. Wisconsin is pretty heavily Catholic and the crowd went nuts each time she referenced some of the passionate words the Pope spoke in on the issue of life.
The governor even spoke about “panels” of bureaucrats making health care decisions for the elderly. The governor also promised that health care rationing is coming if this health care bill is passed in its current form. You could see the light dancing in her eyes as she spoke of the “panels of bureaucrats.” That was fun to watch.
The Governor also spoke about the real “change we can believe in” when it came to advances made by Wisconsin’s pro-life movement. Earlier in the evening we had seen some charts showing that Wisconsin’s abortion rates have gone down by over 50% in the last fifteen years.
The speech was simply fantastic and advanced the “right to life” movement. The speech was well organized and easy to follow. It ran the span of life, beginning in the womb and moving all the way up to fighting for the life of our elderly and those that cannot take care of themselves.
This was probably the most passionate and heartfelt speech I have ever seen the Governor give. She stayed on the point that we must continue to fight for life. All life is worth fighting for; from pre-born stages and all the way to up to our elderly.
Governor Palin left us with these words: "Don’t ever let anyone tell you to sit down and shut up!”
You can read the rest of Carpenter's account of the evening here.
All in all, it's looks like Sarah, to quote our current President, is "fired up, ready to go!"
I'll leave you with this classic while we wonder how Nancy's Blue Dogs will respond:
