Fear Mongering the Elderly.

I said months ago that perhaps euthanasia would be the end of health care reform. No one believed me. Today I'm closer to being right.

On Friday, Boehner, House Minority Leader issued a statement calling item 1233 in the bill a move toward state mandated euthanasia. The same day, Michael Steele, RNC Chairman, said that Obama's plan would "Make Terri Schiavo look like a walk in the park."

The Republicans are pulling out the big guns to kill health care reform. And they turned out to not be abortion?! Euthanasia is the great bogeyman, with it's connotations of Holocaust and what we do to stray dogs. Be very afraid. Even more so than race, end of life issues are impossible for us to discuss as a society. Here's some news from around the web:

John Brummet at the Arkansas News thinks the spin put on the health care bill's inclusion of end-of-life provisions is causing more panic among the elderly than it's worth - which means the republicans fear-mongering, at least in Arkansas, is working.

He opts for cutting that provision out of the bill. I say rubbish. No one wants to talk about women's health/abortion/contraception either (see my prior post). Does that mean we throw the wellbeing of women out of the bill too?

And other euthanasia-mongering:

Will Proposal Promote Euthanasia?, Politico

Fox News Scaring Elderly, CrooksandLiars

Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily gets stupid about how Obama wants to cut your grandma's life short.

GOP Leaders: Preserve Pain, Oppose Dignity for the Dying? by Jeffrey Weiss

Deadly Doctors, New York Post