OH DEAR!  WAS "THAT WOMAN" RIGHT? – AT 10:49 A.M. ET:  Remember how Sarah Palin was ridiculed when she warned against "death panels" in Obamacare?  Well, we're not quite there, but Sarah's warnings may turn out to be prescient.  The Obamans are starting to impose "regulations" on health care that they couldn't get through Congress as part of the Obamacare package.  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.

COMMENT:  The liberal New York Times is to be commended for bringing this to our attention.  There is nothing in the new regulations that resembles "death panels," but the possibilities are disturbing.  Doctors might, in the future, be pressured to give certain kinds of "economically sensible" advice.  And reimbursement structures can be set up that favor one outcome over the other.

This is the kind of trend that must be watched carefully, almost day by day.  And the burden for oversight must fall on Republicans in Congress, as well as outside groups and religious organizations. 

America differs dramatically from Europe in that, as a society, we take seriously the religious admonition to "choose life."  It is one of the elements of "American exceptionalism" that we should revere, and embrace, and defend.  And this is certainly the week to reflect on it.

It is perfectly obvious that the Obama administration will try to do through executive fiat what it could not do by seeking approval from the people's representatives in Congress.  It is the old totalitarian temptation, and we're seeing it in reports from the Environmental Protection Administration.

All right, Republicans.  Put your brains where your mouths are.  Get going on this.

December 26, 2010