TONE DEAF, REQUIRES TREATMENT - AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  It appears that some members of the Obama administration have difficulty learning.  There are remedies, and skilled professionals ready to help.  Consider:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she hopes the final reform package will include measures to encourage end-of-life counseling – despite the controversy such a proposal has caused in recent weeks.

“I am hoping at the end of the day it will be in the package,” Sebelius said on ABC’s This Week. She said end-of-life decisions were among the most important that a family needed to make.

COMMENT:  Yes, Ms. Sebelius, we know, we know.  The problem is, read the bill.  The end-of-life counseling provision, as Sarah Palin astutely pointed out, is in the section of the House bill devoted to saving money.  Got that?

Do you understand, Secretary Sebelius, the implications of that for older people? Have you thought about it?

At any rate, a Senate panel is apparently deleting the provision.  Sure, good counseling is useful and can be enlightening...when properly and respectfully presented.  Don't just dump it on us and say, "It's good for you.  I said so."

August 16, 2009