Yes, we need “death panels”

Richard

April 20th, 2011
2:48 pm

I guess the simple question is who in the government is responsible for determining when to cut off the medicare.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
2:53 pm

We knew it! After denying and denying it the Dems are finally admitting what they’ve been thinking all along. We need rationed health care and death panels. And to think its the Dems who are always scaring elderly people with nonsense that the repubs are going to take away all their soc security, medicare, etc.

MM

April 20th, 2011
3:03 pm

Every day, private insurance companies act as “death panels” but we ignore that reality largely because the media likes the titillating “big bad goverment” storyline. The private sector treatment decision is heavily biased by the profit motive while, in theory, the government treatment decision is subject to rules which originate from the people we elect to office. I would rather take my chances with a public sector decision; at least if that decision is not biased by a health system under the influence of industry lobbyists. Some choice, though.

Toby

April 20th, 2011
3:03 pm

Doom, you got anything constructive to say?

Del,

April 20th, 2011
3:03 pm

Cynthia believes that senior voters won’t back Obama, so she wants to kill them off.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
3:04 pm

So who was that Democratic congressman in Florida who said on the House floor that the Republican’s health care plan for seniors was for seniors “to die”- was it Allen West? Can’t remember who but the irony of it all is just too funny. Yep. It looks pretty obvious that its the Dems whose plan it is for the seniors to “just die”. After denying and denying the truth finally comes out- they want the death panels. They really do.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
3:06 pm

MM,

Here’s the difference that you are obviously not able to discern on your own. If you are denied care by a private plan you have several layers of appeals and then you have the court system. You have recourse. If the gubment denies you care who do you appeal to?

arnold

April 20th, 2011
3:08 pm

I agree withholding care on terminally ill patients. I am 71 and do not wish to waste my time and money on unnecessary care. Just keep me comfortable and as pain free as possible.

My sister recently passed away at age 60 from colon cancer. She tried chemo for about a year and came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth the side effects nor expense. Once a condition is terminal, to continue treating the illness is foolish and wasteful.

Shean

April 20th, 2011
3:11 pm

Tucker,

Why no mention of the barbaric HATE crime that occured this morning on Marta? 30 gutless African American savages nearly beat to death two white Delta emplyees.

Of course in expected fashion, you are silent.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
3:12 pm

Toby,

Actually I do have something constructive to say. Let’s take a look at claim denial/claim rejection rates. Guess who leads the pack? Yep. Medicare! And to think some of you guys actually think you’re better off getting your claim or treatment approved by the gubment. Better think again.

Libs will inevitably state that private plans can simply choose not to pay for expensive treatments. I call baloney on that. In a recent study last year health plans denied claims on an average of 2-3%. United denied payment for 2.5% of all claims, Humana 2.88%, Coventry 2.88%, Cigna 3.44% and Aetna was way out of whack at 6.8% of all claims denied.

So who was higher than all of them? That’s right. Medicare at 6.85% claim denial rate.

Del,

April 20th, 2011
3:13 pm

The libs exaggerate insurance company profits, while ignoring the power that doc’s have in dealing with insurers and securing covered treatments for their patients. They have many ways to get around insurance company objections. Factor in the appeals and legal recourse options that T.D. points out and the private sector is far better than government.

derer

April 20th, 2011
3:13 pm

So those “compassionate” libs Bookman and Tucker both favor murdering babies and the elderly. Not the least bit surprising.

Dr. Pangloss

April 20th, 2011
3:17 pm

In some states we already have death panels. In Texas, for instance, the hospital can pull the proverbial plug, regardless of the family’s wishes, if the hospital ethics board decides that it’s a hopeless case. That’s in a very red state.

Del,

April 20th, 2011
3:18 pm

“My sister recently passed away at age 60 from colon cancer. She tried chemo for about a year and came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth the side effects nor expense.”

Sorry for your loss. Your story, however, is an example of why death panels aren’t necessary. Most terminally ill patients like your sister make the correct decision on their own.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
3:21 pm

So what was that that keep up the good fight, Jay Bookman, and the other libs were saying the other day about MARTA doesn’t bring any crime with it? What was that we were talking yesterday about hate crimes? Funny that the 2 white men were attacked by the mob but the other passengers were not harmed. Wonder why that is? Think these thugs will be charged with a hate crime? Somehow I seriously doubt it. Just like I doubt that Cynthia or Jay will write about it.

Roughly two dozen teens, reportedly chanting the name of an Atlanta gang, invaded a MARTA train early Sunday morning, beating and robbing two Delta flight attendants.

The train’s other passengers, overwhelmed by the aggressive youths — believed to range in age from 13 to 18 — watched the attacks unfold.

“There was blood everywhere, people were hollering and screaming,” a witness told Channel 2 Action News. “We were intimidated. People were terrified. People were trying to run. But there was nowhere to run.”

Flight attendant Parker Stanea, 28, told officers a diminutive black male, no taller than 5′4″, emerged from the pack of teens to hit him over the left eye with a soda can. Stanea was pushed to the ground by the other youths and his wallet, stolen.

His friend, Jose Souza, said he was assaulted by the same suspect, according to the MARTA police incident report. The pink-clad teen punched him in the lip, the 24-year-old Delta employee said, but before they could take anything two unidentified male passengers intervened.

Meanwhile, witnesses said they heard the youths chanting “B.P.F.L,” an Atlanta gang that appears to have established a presence within Zone 3 on the south side. They departed the train at the Oakland City station.

you dont say?

April 20th, 2011
3:22 pm

So after decades of the kooks lying to voters about how it is really Repubs that want kill off the elderly they are finally coming clean.

So we can now officially add old people to the DNC hit list. Make room babies, Christians, educated whites, educated blacks, educated hispanics, Jews, Pro lifers and capitalists!!

bogart

April 20th, 2011
3:25 pm

@ Shean

Dont you know? There is no such thing as hate crimes against the white man. Cynithia would be the first to explain.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
3:27 pm

Del,

You’re right. Most patients and their families do reach the conclusion on their own that its just misery and a wasted expense to prolong the inevitable and they make the decision of their own accord. My best friend’s family had to pull the plug on his grandmother several years back. It seemed cruel to my friend at the time because by pulling the plug his brain dead granny’s body would starve to death from dehydration and lack of food. But his mother a nurse told him that it was painless to his granny and the natural way to die. Being a nurse she realized the obvious expense and needlessness of keeping her body alive. She was a lovely ole lady and died at 93.

Bob

April 20th, 2011
3:30 pm

I can not believe it. Mark it down somewhere. The liberals that vilified Sarah Palin when she stated that death panels were coming are saying she was right. And don’t forget Alan Grayson on the floor of the House stating that Republicans want old people to die. HYPOCRITES!

quartz

April 20th, 2011
3:32 pm

Zen

The only other white witness that was able to hide said it looked like an episode of something on Animal Planet.

Go figure.

Really last word

April 20th, 2011
3:35 pm

Cynthia Tucker . . when will you learn that everything in life is NOT apportioned equally! Children do not need the health care dollars that elderly people need . . . that is common sense! And, one day those children will become elderly!! The NEEDS of children are great if you consider ALL of their needs . . . the cost of education, the cost of health care, the cost of food and a roof over their heads!! Why education alone is enormous!! And, as I age I still (even though my children are adults) pay for education on my property taxes!!! In other words I’m paying for children’s education and I don’t have any children in school!!!
And for “MM” ~~ you post ” The private sector treatment decision is heavily biased by the profit motive while, in theory, the government treatment decision is subject to rules which originate from the people we elect to office” You are wrong . . the private sector treatment decision is based on keeping premiums low so people can afford health care . . they do so by using panels of “doctors” to review treatment and procedures (which by the way have to be approved by FDA and Medicare; no experimental treatment and procedures). I would rather have them deciding my treatment than a bunch of bureacratic dimwits who can’t come together for the good of this country because they are too worried about the next election!

Really last word

April 20th, 2011
3:38 pm

Bogart . . it might not be called “hate” against whites but that is exactly what it is!! All you have to do is read a few opinions written by certain journalist on the AJG website to know there is “hate” for the whites!!

Tommy Maddox

April 20th, 2011
3:38 pm

Now this IS the tip-top of hypocrisy. Shame on you and your cohorts on the Left.

L.Phillips

April 20th, 2011
3:57 pm

In other words:Genocide for all he elderly.
Medical personnel are already practicing this. I have been told several times that “at your age we are not going to do
anything about it “. My age is 84 and I am a functional individual in my community.
Your doctor appointments do little to assure good health. I have been going to my present G.P. for six years and he has of yet to do no more than lift my shirt and listen to my heart and lungs.
It is another example of the “me” society for which we can be blamed for giving our children more than we had etc.

detritusUSA

April 20th, 2011
4:09 pm

It’s really easy to talk of rationing health care when you’re relatively young and have enough money to afford treatment for whatever disease you may contract. Maybe, also, you’ve never had to honor the Living Will of a parent or other loved one and tell the doctor: Let them die. Even knowing that is the wish of a loved one, and that modern medicine could keep them here a while longer the action is about as devastating as it can get.

So before you equate life and longevity with a dollar bill, remember you are going to die also, and death is forever. And all those dollar bills in your bank account won’t go with you.

Apparently, capitalism and compassion are antonyms.

Joe

April 20th, 2011
4:09 pm

What about the young thugs crowding our penal system? Why should we give them free healthcare and not law abiding elderly folks who worked hard and obeyed the law their whole life????

jt

April 20th, 2011
4:11 pm

After the Federal government takes over every aspect of our life and the U.S. becomes a progressive paradise………the Death panel conundrum will solve itself.

Who would want to live in a Progressive paradise?

Driving silly cars/mopeds, nothing but NPR,Obama or Barbara Streisand on the radio, eating tasteless no-fat food, only soccer for sports and no cigarettes.

There will be a line at the nearest Death Panel.

Joe

April 20th, 2011
4:13 pm

I hope your readership picks up Tucker. I get a good laugh out of you lefty loons and wouldn’t want you to lose your job. By the way.. People like you help get Republicans elected almost every year…. Just think.. You can actually take some credit in making Georgia a bright red state…..

Rufus

April 20th, 2011
4:13 pm

Well, Cynthia, who do will the president appoint to play the role of God. Oops! God is a non-entity with you.

Scooter (The Original)

April 20th, 2011
4:17 pm

“If we keeping spending our health care dollars disproportionately on the elderly, we will have little left to spend on children.”

I believe people can spend THEIR money on whatever they want and they should allow me the same freedom and liberty. CT obviously believes theft is alright as long as it is through the ballot box and she is a net receiver, most liberals do.

Robin

April 20th, 2011
4:22 pm

Having family member who have worked in the health care industry specializing in older adult care, I can understand the sentiment expressed by Ms. Tucker. The difficulty is that this is not a question that the health care system can tackle. Quality of life (and death) are topics we should discuss with our family frequently, not just at times of crisis. It’s OK to say you want to die in peace with your family surrounding you at home, and it’s OK to grant this wish to your loved one. We feel like we’re not “good enough” children unless we fight for every last medical treatment, but sometimes allowing your loved ones to die with dignity is the best gift we can give our parents.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
4:22 pm

Let me get this straight Cynthia. We should deny healthcare to those who fought for and who helped build this country. Most of these elderly who you want to deny have paid into the system for decades and decades. Yet you are all for providing healthcare to people who have no business even being in this country and to the low life leeches who spend their entire lives draining the system and sucking the life out of this once great nation.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
4:24 pm

“If resources are limited (and they are), the nation needs to make choices – some more painful than others”. Exactly ! At the top of this list should be deporting those who are here illegally in order to stop them from draining the billions and billions that they “Take” illegally from the taxpayers in this country. 2nd on the list needs to be a 6 month maximum for any and all healthy welfare collectors.

Lil' Barry Bailout

April 20th, 2011
4:32 pm

Libbtards denied there were Death Panels in Obozocare when they needed to bash Sarah Palin, but now that their fascist dream has become law, they’re free to admit that they will exist, and they even cheerlead for them.

Whatever it takes to remain orally attached to their Idiot Messiah’s crank, they’ll do.

sambo

April 20th, 2011
4:32 pm

You’re playing the adult conversation card? Killing people off because they are useless to you now and a drain?

You are dangerously stupid.

Tundra Dude

April 20th, 2011
4:40 pm

ctucker@4:01 wrote:

L. Phillips@3:57, If your response is “genocide for all the elderly,” that demonstrates why these conversations are so difficult for physicians and politicians

I’d guess it’s also difficult for a ME ($$medical entrepreneur$$) to turn down all this EZ money, especially if working in a for-profit hospital that pays “performance ” bonuses.

Also difficult for our contribution-dependent political class to propose changes which might adversely effect the bottom line of various segments of the medical industry.

The Real problem is, the Hippocratic Oath and the $$Profit Motive$$ are a poor mixture.

Alatsea

April 20th, 2011
4:41 pm

If you can’t afford the expenses involved with raising a child don’t have any. Your article just feeds more entitlement to people that have lived on it for generations. You are one sickbitch CT

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
4:44 pm

“Those will undoubtedly be very painful conversations. But we simply don’t have the money to spend to prolong the “…..the laziness and ignorance of the average loser who spends their lives on the government dole. You will no longer be rewarded for bringing additional leeches into the world and you’re complete lack of self respect and ambition will now cause you to starve unless you get off of your lazy #% and go to work.

Lil' Barry Bailout

April 20th, 2011
4:46 pm

This morning, my colleague Jay Bookman had a very thoughtful post on why rationing health care — “death panels,” if you will — is quite necessary.
—————-

Rationing isn’t necessary. Rationing is what the government does when it has a fixed amount of money to spend and a parasite constituency demanding more health care than can be paid for with that fixed amount.

Health insurance companies don’t ration–they cover every procedure they’ve committed to in their contract.

Tundra Dude

April 20th, 2011
4:55 pm

Thulsa Doom@3:12 wrote, in part:

Actually I do have something constructive to say. Let’s take a look at claim denial/claim rejection rates.

(the rest of his comment snipped, tossed into garbage)
Nice piece of work tho, considering only a few states require submitting denial rates.
Obviously this “study” was done by AHIP or one of their ($$corporate-dependent$$) think tanks.

Sorry, but I rather trust the integrity of the Calif. Nurses Ass’n. (CNA)

Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, second half of 2009,
compared to the first six months of 2009:

• PacifiCare — 41.17% (up from 39.6 % ,the first six mos of 09)
• Cigna – 35.43 % (up from 32.7 %)
• HealthNet – 25.82 % (down from 30 %)
• Kaiser Permanente – 26.96 % (down from 28.3 %)
• Anthem Blue Cross – 24.5 % (down from 27.9 %)
• Aetna — 6.4 % (no change)
• Blue Shield – 22 % (Blue Shield had previously not reported separate denial data, and only began reporting after the media reports on denials)

“What we see over and over is an arrogant industry that is indifferent to the pain and suffering caused by routine care denials or economic catastrophe prompted by outrageous price gouging,” said CNA/NNOC Co-President Geri Jenkins.

Richard

April 20th, 2011
4:58 pm

Allow me to quote Lewis Black:
“The way is works is a Democrat stands up and yells “I GOT A REALLY BAD IDEA.” To which the Republican says: “AND I CAN MAKE IT SPITTIER!”"

frans ferdinand

April 20th, 2011
4:58 pm

golf clap for the fundamentalist christians’ who refuse treatment for their dying children. talk about taking one for the team.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
5:05 pm

Golf clap to the millions of liberal scum who produce children for the sole purpose of increasing their monthly government check. I think that they far outnumber the few loonies who deny their kids medical coverage for religious purposes.

Really last word

April 20th, 2011
5:06 pm

You tell it like it is “Fed Up” . . . I agree w/you wholeheartedly!!!

frans ferdinand

April 20th, 2011
5:07 pm

fed,

I’m serious. If more christians’ were true believers’ and put it all in God’s hands-the healthcare debacle would resolve itself. Amen.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
5:10 pm

Frans,
If more liberal politicians truly cared more about the downtrodden in this country and less about buying votes…we would have a lot fewer downtrodden and this country would be flush with cash. A liberal politicians worst nightmare is a well educated working class.

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
5:10 pm

Lil’ Barry Bailout

January 24th, 2011
8:51 pm

I do my best to stay away from CT’s blog.

Try harder.

Really last word

April 20th, 2011
5:13 pm

Tundra Dude April 20th, 2011
4:55 pm

There are many reasons for claims to be denied . . wrong code, diagnosis code does match treatment code, claim submitted outside of time period required for submission, treatment requires prior approval/no prior approval obtained, insured no longer covered (may have dropped their coverage), facility not approved for treatment, treatment not approved by FDA; treatment considered experimental, duplicate claim, provider not approved provider, denied because other treatment is a prerequisite, etc.

frans ferdinand

April 20th, 2011
5:15 pm

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Looks like Jesus Christ is a bed-wetting liberal. Go figure.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
5:19 pm

I’ll quote Ms. Tucker…”You may remember the infamous “death panels” fabrication, which reverberated through the political landscape in 2009. It was a falsehood jerry-rigged to a perfectly sane proposal — that Medicare pay doctors to ask patients a few questions: Have you thought about end-of-life directives? Do you want a living will?

The policy sought to take advantage of the great weakness of our health care system: it pays doctors for procedures, not outcomes. Given that, doctors would be more likely to raise the subject with patients if they were paid for the time they spent. If experience is any guide, patients are less likely to bring it up themselves. But any patient’s participation would have been purely voluntary. No one would have been forced to have the conversation.

From that thoughtful policy change, Sarah Palin and others spread the “death panels” lie, persuading millions of Americans that the federal government would empanel bureaucrats to decide when to “pull the plug on Granny.”

What happened Cynthia ?

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
5:20 pm

Typical lying, flip flopping luiberal pig.

Really last word

April 20th, 2011
5:23 pm

Tundra Dude April 20th, 2011
4:55 pm

So what’s your point . . insurance companies deny claims for numerous reasons. Too often people want to have procedures, prescriptions, treatment that they “think” they need when in actuality they don’t need them. That is why insurance companies have doctors, nurses, etc. employed. They want to keep the costs down that is why they have “managed care” … keeping the costs down also gives them the ability to “try” to keep the premiums down. But people see a new drug advertised on tv . . . or they have a friend who had a procedure . . and they decide they want that too! Then you have those people who don’t have insurance because they are healthy . . then they get a disease and they can’t understand why they can’t just go pick up coverage! That’s like having a car accident without having insurance and calling the auto insurance and saying I want auto insurance and btw please cover my accident I had today!

hobby

April 20th, 2011
5:32 pm

There is no way to respond to an article like this

martin the calvinist

April 20th, 2011
5:42 pm

It should be the decision of the person and their family exclusively. It is not the business of a government beaurecrat to make those kind of decisions.

Cynthia, for you to chide those who stated there were death panels in the health care bill discredits your intergrity.

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 20th, 2011
5:48 pm

Ms. Cynthia:

1) They should call themselves the “Metabolically Disadvantaged Panel”. It sounds so much better.

2) I hope the “Skull and Crossed Bones” flag flies in front of all their buildings.

3) “Heil Tucker” !!!

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 20th, 2011
5:49 pm

Egads, just wait until a higher percentage of minorities get the early ride to the morgue. Then it will hit the fan.

Lil' Barry Bailout

April 20th, 2011
5:51 pm

Kamchak: Try harder.
——————

Kammy gets all warm “down there” when it sees me post!

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
6:02 pm

No lil’bb brain

Merely pointing out that you are just a silly con with zero credibility.

You say one thing, yet do the opposite.

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 20th, 2011
6:08 pm

BADA BING:

Obama spelled backwards is Amabo.

Hummmmm ……………… could be something there.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
6:14 pm

So tundra dude’s mind believes that insurance companies like blue cross, pacificare, and kaiser routinely deny between 1/4 and over 40% of all claims. That is so preposterous that I can’t believe a rational person would post it. Tundra dude that study is obviously flawed or very misleading. Use some common sense sir.

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
6:17 pm

Just remember, birthers spelled backwards is srehtrib.

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
6:37 pm

It’s official…..you in heap big doo-doo and have ‘left the reservation’ tucker….these decisions are NOT the gubt’s business….class in session…when you allow someone, anyone(GOVT) to put a $$$$$ number on what a human life is worth and then that same entity (GOVT)tells you that you are not getting your lifesaving treatment because they DEEM someone else $$$$worthier, you are in a realm that does not include traditional american values and this mindset is not what made this country great…..this leftist drivel is bled all over papers across the country…..this class warfare played by the libs and press is being understood by more and more people every day tucker…..it’s a lib 101 template that apparently you know miss tucker, class warfare is a big marxist tenet and in this article your beliefs bled through in only the second paragraph when you pitted the elderly(who would be sacrificed) against the children in these DEATH PANELS that you claimed were made up…….hypocrisy people, i think so, class dismissed

Mr Right

April 20th, 2011
6:37 pm

So Sarah Palin was right all along !

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
6:40 pm

Are these death panels what pelosi meant when she told us we would just have to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it tucker? Liars lie people….

Bob

April 20th, 2011
6:41 pm

CT-Palin was discussing death panels that were tied to end of life care in section 1233 of the HR3200

“Of course, it’s not just this one provision that presents a problem. My original comments concerned statements made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy advisor to President Obama and the brother of the President’s chief of staff. Dr. Emanuel has written that some medical services should not be guaranteed to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens….An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.” [10] Dr. Emanuel has also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which “produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.” [11]

President Obama can try to gloss over the effects of government authorized end-of-life consultations, but the views of one of his top health care advisors are clear enough. It’s all just more evidence that the Democratic legislative proposals will lead to health care rationing, and more evidence that the top-down plans of government bureaucrats will never result in real health care reform.”

- Sarah Palin

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
6:52 pm

I remember the dominant liberal media jumping all over Sarah Palin for bringing up “death panels”. And now what do we see? Lib columnists writing about the necessity of “death panels”. Oh but the irony of it all.

guy

April 20th, 2011
7:03 pm

Shean,
What happened on the marta bus this morning won’t be mentioned very long by the liberal press in this country.The victims were white and they don’t count. What happened in the Death Wish movies will be what it takes to get the low rent scums(all races) attention.It’ coming!!!!!

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
7:05 pm

Death Panels? Just put the elderly, sick people on their last legs on the MARTA. They’ll get culled out of the population by these young thugs running in packs like predators.

Thulsa Doom

April 20th, 2011
7:07 pm

So the only victims were white and were attacked by 20 or so young black men. Please don’t tell me some of you folks are thinking this will be prosecuted as a hate crime. Now if the 2 victims were black and the 20 person gang were white then of course that would be a whole different story. Not to mention that it would be national news.

Fed-Up

April 20th, 2011
7:11 pm

No comment Cybthia??? There’s a shocker ! I will quote you again. This were your words only a few short months ago. It’s no wonder that being a drug dealer is 2 notches above being a modern day journalist in the respectability scale.

“You may remember the infamous “death panels” fabrication, which reverberated through the political landscape in 2009. It was a falsehood jerry-rigged to a perfectly sane proposal — that Medicare pay doctors to ask patients a few questions: Have you thought about end-of-life directives? Do you want a living will?

The policy sought to take advantage of the great weakness of our health care system: it pays doctors for procedures, not outcomes. Given that, doctors would be more likely to raise the subject with patients if they were paid for the time they spent. If experience is any guide, patients are less likely to bring it up themselves. But any patient’s participation would have been purely voluntary. No one would have been forced to have the conversation.

From that thoughtful policy change, Sarah Palin and others spread the “death panels” lie, persuading millions of Americans that the federal government would empanel bureaucrats to decide when to “pull the plug on Granny.” “

Tundra Dude

April 20th, 2011
7:13 pm

Thulsa Doom@6:14 wrote, in part:

Tundra dude that study is obviously flawed or very misleading. Use some common sense sir.

Not a study. These figures were obtained via subpoena by the Calif. Attorney General in 09.
They are now publicly available at Calif. Dep’t of Managed Care.

Bob

April 20th, 2011
7:18 pm

Let me get this straight;

Libs trying to pass Obamacare.
Palin and other conservatives discuss death panels and rationing of health care.
Libs are afraid because of the negative press for death panels.
Libs call these concerns BS and claim Insurance companies are denying treatment.
Alan Grayson states that Republicans want old people to die.
Pelosi pushes quick passage after all the back room deals.
Pelosi “We need to pass if to see what’s in it”.
Obamacare passes.
Libs call for rationing health care (denied it before Obamacare was passed).
Libs are proven HUGE hypocrites and show they can not be trusted.
Libs continue spinning with their friends (lies and deception)

John Galt

April 20th, 2011
7:21 pm

Frans-

You are clearly biblically illiterate. Please show me the verse that says “Thou shalt take thy brother’s coat, or his food, or his ass, and give it to thy other brother if it will make thee feel better about thyself”.

Christ would NOT condone the practice of liberals using other people’s money to purchase political constituencies. He was instructing people to give of their own belongings to aid the needy, NOT have it done through involuntary confidcation by some government entity.

On another note, I wonder if Ms. Tucker will tell us how many times she has called Sarah Palin a liar and a fool for referencing “death panels” as created by ObamaCare.

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
7:39 pm

The protagonist from a novel about moral objectivism written by an atheist is channeling Christ.

Too funny.

Just can’t make this shyt up.

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
7:42 pm

you and bookman’s credibility has taken a serious hit today with this prose……keep talking about this stuff…please!

Jack

April 20th, 2011
8:03 pm

Apparently neither Tucker nor Bookman have ever had to pull the plug on a loved one. It ain’t easy.

Paddy O

April 20th, 2011
8:13 pm

The deficiency in this argument is: The elderly person has contributed to the care he/she is receiving. The PARENTS of the proposed child should have done some very careful consideration prior to engaging in sex to bring that child into the world. THE PARENTS are responsible/accountable for that childs well being and existence, NOT the government. This is the uber liberal’s nanny state utilitarianism brought to its final argument for consideration, and one that ALL liberals who believe (quite erroneously & UnAmerican) that health care is a “right” that must be supplied by the government (what other rights are SUPPLIED by the government, freedom to assemble? NO; freedom of speech and the press (to write down your thoughts – notice the word “expression” is NOT included in this section of the bill of rights) – NO. this is why the entire artifice of liberal “rights thought” is noting more than bleeding heart governmental dependency, and freedom loving Americans should reject it, and reject all those honest liberals who know what the end game (utilitarianism combined with misplaced liberal “idealism” (that is the masquerade – in reality it is socialism/communism – McCarthy was right – this writer is a godless, bleeding heart [have to help the poor children- who we don’t abort – communist)).

ck hall

April 20th, 2011
8:13 pm

You have got to be crazy!

Drifter

April 20th, 2011
8:20 pm

I wouldn’t call them death panels, but rather rational decision making on what should be done with limited funding. I know the AMA, the drug companies and the health insurance companies desire to divide up the entire wealth of the country among themselves, but we can’t afford to do that. The bottom line is these guys are stripping a greater percentage of wealth from its citizens than any other country, they’re not covering everyone and they’re getting poor results. The greatest nation in the world should be doing better.

kayaker 71

April 20th, 2011
8:21 pm

Tucker, I have defended you on several occasions regarding your rhetoric, although I have disagreed with you on most topics. But this is about the end of the line. Your hypocritical approach to this subject is beyond reason. I cannot tell you how much respect that I have lost for you as you write this thread. You have some moments of light but lately, you have descended into some dark place where it appears, only the irrational live. You called Palin everything but sane for saying the same things you have just admitted. How do you liberals look yourselves in the mirror each day?

Craig Spinks/ Evans

April 20th, 2011
8:25 pm

Might there be more, much more, money to be made in providing high-tech care to terminally ill elderly patients than in providing prophylactic care to youngsters?

frans ferdinand

April 20th, 2011
8:30 pm

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil (insurance companies): for thou art with me(Jesus and Single-Payer); thy rod and thy staff they comfort me sans pre-exiisting clauses. Amen.
(Psalm 23:4)

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

April 20th, 2011
8:37 pm

Hopefully you and Jay will be some of the first to benefit from the collective wisdom of a death panel. Just kidding, where would we go to read all of your almost non-stop, mad-cap, hilarious inanities? The comic relief the two of you provide would be difficult to duplicate.

On a different subject, I look forward to reading your various reasons why S&P’s placement of U.S. government debt on the “negative watch” list is actually good for everybody, just like $4.00 a gallon gas. Your mental gymnastics are admirable. Anything for the cause.

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
8:48 pm

well said vrwc

DawgDad

April 20th, 2011
8:57 pm

Ms. Tucker, you are one very sick individual. I would like to thank you and Jay for going public with the TRUTH of who and what you are.

Our forefathers (mine at least) fought and in some cases died for our freedoms. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by and hand over my freedom and the freedom of my family, friends, and future generations without sounding off and standing firm in defense. Your kind cannot be trusted with your own unborn children; why in the world would we trust you and your kind with our health care and end of life decisions??? Never. Never. Never. This fight is at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion. Let’s get it on.

For the record, I have absolutely NO PROBLEM paying higher health care costs in the PRIVATE SECTOR to cover the cost of charitable care. This, for the record, is REAL charity, not the false kind you promote funded with my tax dollars or leveraged future. I will never willingly surrender this Constitutional freedom to the Federal Government. My health care choices are mine, not yours.

Log Cabin Al

April 20th, 2011
9:06 pm

DawgDad,

Thanks! I think it moved.

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
9:11 pm

the silence of tucker’s hit squad is deafening out here………..

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
9:14 pm

Poor little billy-poo.

Just can’t fathom,

We’re just not that into you.

Tech Man

April 20th, 2011
9:18 pm

CT – Dancing the Texas Sidestep (Best Little Worehouse in Texas).

Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Nelson and now Tucker!

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
9:19 pm

fine, please defend tucker then…..

Lavonia Jane

April 20th, 2011
9:20 pm

What happened to all the scorn about death panels a few months ago? Lying? Again?
Do you really want the government who is the one who is paying for the healthcare to be the ones making the decisons? Is there anything that you don’t trust the government to do?

oldguy

April 20th, 2011
9:33 pm

Hey CT
News flash, we are all terminally ill….We are all dying, its just a matter of when. I forgot who it was that said “you are born, then you
begin to die!”
So who decides you have used up your “good time” on this planet?
Some bored inept government bureaucrat? A computer program that kicks out your name as having exhausted your services limit?
That is apparently what you want.
if you are too old forget any more medical services!!
As a 69 year old with Diabetes when does my clock run out??
Is my medicine too expensive for the Imperial Federal Government to afford?
When do my services resources “reach its limit?” (like a credit card).
Please feel free to let me know!!
p.s. I just get back from out pateint skin cancer surgery. Maybe I am too old for the Gov to spend that money under Obamba care!!!
Keep your “gov run health care”

TruthBe

April 20th, 2011
9:34 pm

Hey democrat liars didn’t you accuse the GOP for death panels when all along it’s been Obama, Reid, Pelois, and the democrats with obamacare that created “Death Panels” Once again the corrupt media and the corrupt DNC are the real villians. Cynthia Tucker, Jay Bookman, and the rest of the ajc are corrupt racist, dishonest wantab journalists.

oldguy

April 20th, 2011
9:37 pm

pps
Please let me know when “Dirty Harry Reed’s” service time maxes out. I’ll be more that happy to serve on that Death Panel!!

Paddy O

April 20th, 2011
9:38 pm

the guy who decides is the fired FAA guy who was caught snoozing while a plane ran down the wrong run, which was too short, and hit the tree off the end of that short run way. Yeah, that guy who was overseeing the airport in kentucky.

Chris

April 20th, 2011
9:39 pm

Probably the most honest piece I have read by Ms. Tucker. Rationing healthcare is on the table!

Paddy O

April 20th, 2011
9:40 pm

the liberal panderers are atheistic communists – ask them if they support ending the Earned Income Credit – what % do you think will say yes?

Kamchak

April 20th, 2011
9:43 pm

fine, please defend tucker then…..

Against whom?

The little Pomeranians that yap at her ankles here all day?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

She’s more than capable of handling you little rat dogs.

Ray

April 20th, 2011
10:02 pm

Tucker wants to get rid of people, so there will be more money to redistribute.

Get Real

April 20th, 2011
10:08 pm

Kamchak….don’t go away mad, just go away

Billybob

April 20th, 2011
10:10 pm

technique taught in Lib 101…..immediately change subject that you can’t defend, call names and attack character of your opponent……and you are right, she has defended herself great so far………that’s called sarcasm

Mid-South Philosopher

April 20th, 2011
10:11 pm

Ah, Miss Cynthia,

Thank you for being honest, which is much more than the vast majority of liberals or conservatives are these days. At least you and Jay have the intestinal fortitude to lay out your socialist views on “the brave new world.”

If you or Jay ever have to go before one of these “death panels”, I will not appear to speak in your behalf, but I will write a nice letter to the tribunal expressing my approval of the event and encouraging them to comply with your wishes!

worthington

April 20th, 2011
10:17 pm

The Republican agenda continues to be the dismantling of the social safety net for working people, the poor and the elderly.

Ponder

April 20th, 2011
10:23 pm

Yes, we need “death panels”
CT- your topic is spot on if directed to the following thugs —

Roughly two dozen teens, chanting the name of a well-known Atlanta gang, brought mob rule to MARTA early Sunday morning, overwhelming nervous passengers and assaulting two Delta flight attendants.

CT – perhaps you should focus on getting your own house in order before worrying about your hopey-changey view of the world!!!!

worthington

April 20th, 2011
10:25 pm

“I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.” ~ George W. Bush

Madison with a question

April 20th, 2011
10:35 pm

Has Kamchak taken Granny G place as the moron du jur?

Madison with a question

April 20th, 2011
10:36 pm

du jour sorry fast fingers

ATL in my rear view mirror

April 20th, 2011
10:39 pm

UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Always good to see our family made a great decision to move out of Atlanta two years ago….

Two out-of-state Delta employees were attacked late Saturday night after being, according to witnesses, “bum rushed” by nearly 30 teenagers on a MARTA train.

According to MARTA police and news reports, a large group of teenagers boarded the southbound train at downtown’s Garnett station around midnight.

One of the teens — a black male between the age of 13 and 18 years old — then allegedly pushed one of the victims to the ground before hitting him in the head with a can of soda and taking his wallet. The police report says one of the suspect’s friends — a black male between the age of 16 and 18 years old — started punching the other employee before snatching his wallet. Two MARTA riders then separated the victims from the suspects.

JKL2

April 20th, 2011
10:41 pm

Obama’s good buddy Bill Ayers said we needed to kill off about 25 million back in his Weather Underground terrorists days. Adjusting for population growth since then, I’m guessing the death panels will need to take out about 40 million people for obamaland to function properly. Is that what you had in mind CT?

JKL2

April 20th, 2011
10:43 pm

Madison- Has Kamchak taken Granny G place as the moron du jour?

Not replaced, just a compliment to. I think they share the same brain cell. Unfortunately it’s not his day…

worthington

April 20th, 2011
10:46 pm

When seventy percent of Tea Partiers are against changes in Medicare, how do the Generals placate the troops?

John Galt

April 20th, 2011
10:49 pm

Guess Cynthia has forgotten who I am and what I represent. Those of us that create wealth will not let the maligant scum take the world. We are not about to hand our lives to the state. No matter how toxic your lies are we shall reveal the truth.

worthington

April 20th, 2011
10:51 pm

A funny thing happened to the American ruling class: It stopped being concerned with the health of society as a whole and became almost entirely obsessed with money.

Tommy Maddox

April 20th, 2011
11:05 pm

Maybe young one you should check in w/us after you PAY on a tax return.

bman

April 20th, 2011
11:07 pm

wow wow wow !! Before you made these thoughts public, did you stop to think that this terminally ill 87 year old patient (that you would – as Palin said it – PULL THE PLUG ON) may have been marching in the streets in support of civil rights movement??

You should be ashamed of yourself. The AJC should be ashamed, too.

Don't Tread

April 20th, 2011
11:08 pm

A few months ago you were railing about the Republican “misinformation” and “lies” regarding your “health care” bill, rationing, and death panels. Now you say death panels (rationing) are necessary and financially the right thing to do.

You really can’t make this stuff up, folks.

Now please tell us again how Democrats cut taxes for the middle class? My tax software must be broken.

Verbotten

April 20th, 2011
11:33 pm

Jeez, now she’s down to cut&pasting Bookman’s column. She can’t even make the effort to dig up something from some other paper. Pulitzer Prize to cut&paste queen, how sad.

On topic: these would be the same “death panels” that you all so screamingly denied even existed? For which you mocked unrelentingly anyone with the temerity to utter the words?

scott

April 20th, 2011
11:47 pm

Okay, Cynthia, you are definitely infirm, so you are outta here.

Ret

April 20th, 2011
11:57 pm

I dispute this part of the premise of your argument–we’re not spending OUR $, we’re spending the $ of our children, grandchildren….

bman

April 21st, 2011
12:06 am

Ret – and $ that could be better used towards patient care for the millions who are here illegally, feeding & housing convicted murderers. I mean….I’m with you.

Tommy

April 21st, 2011
12:21 am

It sounds very similar to what the Nazis used in WWII to me. I would be ashamed to look a person in the eye and tell them “your life is not worth anything to us.” We now are going to send you home to die. What kind of society does Obama and his fans think we are?
It shames me to even think Americans would do this to each other. We spend billions of dollars on needless wars, on aid to countries that hate America and you propose Death Panels.
I would pose a question to you CT what if that were you child, brother or sister, husband, mom or dad laying there with cancer or some other life threatening problem do you want a Death Panel to vote on there fate? Or do you want a team of doctors to keep them alive and let the family decide what is best?
The liberal party of this country is determined to ruin or society. You want this country to be a socialist state so bad it is unreal. You have the president in place leading the charge and people like you with a public forum preaching his message every day.
All i can hope far the madness will end on Nov. 2, 2012.

ken

April 21st, 2011
12:25 am

We have had them for years. Many dead babies in trah cans.

The Thin Guy

April 21st, 2011
12:27 am

There are betters ways of cutting medical costs. First, eliminate all medical treatment for illegal aliens. Second, outlaw medical malpractice lawsuits. Even better outlaw lawyers. Eliminate all non essential medical treatment such as hair transplants, breast implants, change of sex operations, plastic surgery, etc. Impose a fat tax on all obese patients. But Cynthia loves Death Panels because the government gets to decide who lives and who dies.

Hypocrites

April 21st, 2011
12:38 am

It cracks me up all of the conservative hypocrites on here that are all of a sudden so concerned about publicly funded health care to the elderly, and are outraged that there be any discussion of limiting such in any way. What do you think Paul Ryan’s plan was going to do?

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 21st, 2011
1:10 am

Cynthia:

You had better think this through carefully.

There are a lot of half-dead senior black citizens bused out every election to make that important vote. Now add all of that black abortion genocide and you guys could really be losing influence down the road. “Don’t cut off your nose despite your face” !

Tom Middleton

April 21st, 2011
2:14 am

I vote No to your death panels for the terminally ill, Cynthia, unless you’ll also give them the right to die well before as a personal matter of dignity. Hey, the kids will love us for it..lolol!

Chappy

April 21st, 2011
2:32 am

All this dems and repos misses a huge point.

We are ALL going to die.

Hey Cindi Lou, I couldn’t imagine I’d ever read about you again. Your still at it! Good for you. I bet there is one point you and I would agree on. The crash should have come. We should not have bailed out the animals who created a situation that destroyed so many working people’s lives. The result was that even more wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a couple few. I would never have believed in “wealth redistribution”, but since our government tried to foil the natural correction cycle of everybody starting over, now I do think it would be horribly painful but the best thing that could happen, because that 1% will become lords of unbearable and evil power.

I don’t mean to hijack your death panel thread – but would like to hear your opinion. Because you yourself entertained power desires, you are unlikely to offer the powerful opinion of the poor any longer but I’ll look for you in the future to see if you’d still support this. The 1% of wealth holders needs to be taken down for the sake of the VAST majority.

And since insurance companies are ALL ABOUT denying care to anybody for the sake of profits to their shareholders, with the honest result that death panels are not new, I support the idea of grossly ill people sucking up millions in care for one individual that IS about to die anyway.

But, since your brother is a doctor (you sound like an old jewish mother there) you’ve probably been cued to start buying insurance stock and profit from these decisions so I’m only disappointed in seeing you are no longer a flaming crazy adamant about the rights of the poor, because you DO know who will receive the majority of these termination notices for care. You ought fully well take a look in the mirror now and realize it aint just old white men who use and abuse others for their gain. tsk tsk tsk.

Chappy

April 21st, 2011
2:36 am

sorry there is a cat on my keyboard, I DON’T support terminally ill patients sucking up millions in health care when they have already lived into old age and are terribly sick. I see to many people with no quality of life who would have actually died were it not for extreme machines who only prolong the wait for no quality in return.

My last post incorrectly states I think they should. but the cat here apparently has another opinion.

Jeff

April 21st, 2011
3:10 am

Glad you can admit Sarah Palin was right. Too bad you waited a year to late to do it.

brain of con

April 21st, 2011
4:06 am

Nuance, Your’e Fired!

J Moore

April 21st, 2011
5:00 am

Fed up said it all! Liberals are godless heatherns who have no respect for life–except theirs of course.
We shoulda picked our own cotton.

finn mccool

April 21st, 2011
5:08 am

Deny, deny, deny…and now admit it.

Obama Supporter

April 21st, 2011
6:18 am

Thank goodness, the government knows best. I want more pie, but I do not want to work for it. I want the same medical benefits as you, but I want to watch Jerry Springer and soap operas all day. Glad CT is here to continue the lies, so we can march like liberal lemmings over the cliff. I love me some entitlement.

seabeau

April 21st, 2011
6:49 am

ctucker !!! It was said many years ago by conservatives when abortion was legalized that abortion was the the beginning of a long slippery slope where all human life could be debased and threatened. It looks like we were right. Cynthia, lets take your liberal idea a bit futher,lets only give medical benefits to PRODUCTIVE menbers of society. TAX PAYERS!! No medical benefits to those on the DOLE!! “The Liberals Moral Delemma, Murder the Innocents(Abortion),and Pardon the Murderers(Anti-Capital Punishment)”.

Dave

April 21st, 2011
6:53 am

Love you hypocrit liberaals. “Old people, just go die.” Blame it on the Republicans. Just give us your votes and get the H— out of the way. AARP are you listening? So, in reality, President Obama’s cost saving health care program is to insure only the healthy and kill everyone else.

Dave

April 21st, 2011
7:00 am

Chappy, you are a rare Dummycrap, honest in your total hate of anyone more successful that you.

Gordon

April 21st, 2011
7:01 am

Didn’t Bookman just write this? Don’t you guys communicate with each other?

Mongo

April 21st, 2011
7:18 am

LOL. I love all the little Connies wailing and gnashing their teeth about evil Medicare and death panels when their only proposal is a voucher system where the elderly would run out of money before they even need end of life care.
Steal Granny’s Medicare to fund more tax cuts for the idle rich. That’s the way to go. What scum.

bigjet

April 21st, 2011
7:25 am

This is the first time, ever, that I have agreed with your thoughts. It is well past time to reconsider expensive treatments for those who are too far gone to benefit. There is much to be said for dying with dignity,

IloveGeorgia

April 21st, 2011
7:31 am

You make me sick! That is all I have to say. I hope you do not need any life saving treatment in your senior years, which are not far off!!!!!!!!

They cut hair, don't they?

April 21st, 2011
7:33 am

Isn’t “very thoughtful post” an oxymoron if you’re talking about Jay Bookman? He hacked the entire blog from me, as usual.

90% of our healtcare costs are spent on the last six months of a patients life.

Any questions? Good, then stfu. You Mayo Clinicians don’t understand the facts, worse, you don’t care enough about logic to advance any discussion. You are all children. You frame your argument from a platform of fear. You’re afraid of not just your own death, but also of your own minds. You may have to make choices and it paralyzes you. Instead you hack reheated mealworm opinions you steal from the media. And your data mining is so convoluted, that it makes strip mining coal look like planting corn.

None of you deserve a farthing of compassion. (now watch the blog hosts use the word farthing where before they have never used it in their entire pathetic hacked out lives).

proxymorons. all.

We’re spending our Healthcare resources on patients who have six months to live or less. Let Donald Trump house them in his empty building projects. PERIOD.

Cosby

April 21st, 2011
7:43 am

Ahh…now we let the government play God….another reason to dump the government programs and let the people take care of themsleves.

SouthernGal

April 21st, 2011
7:49 am

When a persons quality of life is nil…why not euthanasia?

shellybean

April 21st, 2011
7:50 am

You are everything that is wrong with this society Ms. Tucker.

BOB

April 21st, 2011
7:52 am

cidy – i thought you claimed in one of your last years articles that we already had death panels – the INSURANCE COMPANY.

Not Blind

April 21st, 2011
7:59 am

Great, we can quit spending money on old people that are dying. What’s the next step to huge savings ? Hey, how about denying coverage for ‘not old’ people, say 40 or 50 yr olds ?? Then how about no treatment for newborns with terrible birth defects?? Then no treatment for newborns with minor birth defects.

EJ Moosa

April 21st, 2011
8:01 am

Unhappy with the “unfairness” of people pursuing their own health care, you have now created a system that forces everyone into the same program.

And because you control the doctors with your plan as well, the government now gets to choose who is worth to receive services and who is not.

Freedom is Control must be the new mantra.

Orwell would be pleased.

But you should choose to call them Life Panels. After all the death of one you no longer desire insures the life of the ones you prefer, right?

The Eugenics crowd of the 1930’s would be so proud of you. It took you 80 years to embrace their beliefs, but you are there.

Not Blind

April 21st, 2011
8:02 am

Dang, I completely forgot about the mentally ill !!!

Dave

April 21st, 2011
8:03 am

Keep in mind that there are many people, myself included, who have strong beliefs against anything that could be considered suicide. If I were terminally ill or even very sick, I cannot choose the option that would cause me to die earlier since that is akin to suicide. So if the state were to make that decision for me, it would then no longer be suicide.

Really?

April 21st, 2011
8:03 am

If we need end of life death panels, how about beginning of life death panels too? Maybe forced abortions if the cost of the child might be “too” great? Maybe we shoudl withdraw care from chidlren whose life long medical expenses are seen by the panel as too high? Where might Ms. Tucker’s horrific vision end?
Eventually, what happens if the family does not go along with the death panel’s “recommended solution”.
Do people have more value than just the dollars and cents that Tucker wants to spend somewhere else?

4 Score

April 21st, 2011
8:06 am

as pointed out, I think that the concern is who will be making the decesion. The patient and family or an unknown beaureacrat? What criteria do you set, how do you determine value of life? Would Steve Hawkins life had been cut short. How about the evil wealthy who can afford it? hmmmm

Not Blind

April 21st, 2011
8:08 am

Hey, how about them badly wounded soldiers ??? Heck yeah, lets save money. We might could then afford the entitlements to the healthy bums and illegal aliens.

Not Blind

April 21st, 2011
8:11 am

Lawyers would never let it happen. They get a court order to review the case and the treatment must be maintained while the case wends it’s way through the courts. The person dies in the mean time but the medicos got their cut and the lawyers now get some too.

AT

April 21st, 2011
8:12 am

Where was all this honesty back when gov’t healthcare was being “sold” to us? Good grief. Opponents were lambasted for even suggesting that death panels existed in the bill, or that they existed by default from such a bill. Now the same accusers, Bookman and Tucker included, are saying, basically, that the opponents are right!

The evil of death panels is not that people die, that is going to happen, it happens to all of us. The evil is that some bureaucrat will decide that for you. It won’t matter if you have more money than Barack Obama, you won’t be allowed to get your dialysis. “We’ve decided that someone else needs to use the machine more than you.” Someone that the gov’t deciders choose.

buck@gon

April 21st, 2011
8:15 am

Oh yes!!

Death Panels!

Run on that for 2012. I dare you!

Dave

April 21st, 2011
8:20 am

its not like we don’t already have death panels in health care. There is one for every health insurance company.

PrivatizeHealthcare

April 21st, 2011
8:25 am

Cynthia, your brother’s comments completely underscore why government should NOT be involved in healthcare at all – he’s talking about a Medicare program. The health care system must be changed, and the only way to fix it is to get rid of government involvement at all, as well as to stop tying it to jobs. I totally agree with Clark Howard who said the way to fix it is to privatize it – make it the individual’s responsibility to purchase, and competition will set the price and keep it low. How many more examples of the government messing things up (i.e. your brother’s story above) do Democrats need to realize big government is not only inefficient and cost ineffective, but it is destroying our country!

khc

April 21st, 2011
8:29 am

seems like a lot of folks are really scared of the life’s they’ve led

The Times They Are a Changin'

April 21st, 2011
8:33 am

20+ years ago Gov. Lamb of Colorado famously declared that old people have a duty/responsibility to die (villified by many, of course) as country was spending 2% of GDP on keeping people alive in the last six months of their lives (if true today, that is about $300-400 billion per year). Most of that would fall in Medicare and Medicaid (mainly Medicare, as one presumes that most people who die are elderly).

Gravity does have a way of continuing to operate…and finally it weighs down so much on liberals that they finally get hit in the head by it (trillions and trillions in debt later). At least liberals are now ready to have the conversation while only the bow of the Titanic is under water…..

Frank

April 21st, 2011
8:34 am

Every day I pray to “The Panel of One”. The “Great I Am” blessed us with a 100% mortality rate. We all simply have to get out o’ the way of the following generations.
‘Difficult for us mortals to comprehend. But the beauty is that we can live forever without understanding.

Chris Matthews

April 21st, 2011
8:37 am

You will stand before God one day and answer for your death panels and your abortins killings!

jconservative

April 21st, 2011
8:44 am

Notice that the dialysis that is the topic is a government program. Private insurers long ago refused to cover anyone requiring dialysis.
The private insurers imposed their own brand of death panels and the American people accepted it.

But if the government wants to do death panels it is a horror.

That makes no logical sense to me.

If death panels are a horror they are a horror regardless of who is calling the shot.

But we all know the answer. Private industry use of lobbyists. The lobbyist have convinced the American people it is OK for “Joe’s Insurance Company” to let people die but it is not OK for Big Government to let people die.

Literally, only in America.

T-Town

April 21st, 2011
8:49 am

I do not fear death, I fear life as a vegetable. Death is inevitable, it should be with dignity no matter what your believes are. Living wills and ones wishes should be made well known.

Gator Joe

April 21st, 2011
8:52 am

Cynthia,
The only thing the health care “insurance” industry insures is their profits and diminishing care for their policy holders. Imagine spending all we are spending on wars and wastefull defense spending on the health and well-being of our citizens.

Tech Man

April 21st, 2011
8:55 am

jconservative
April 21st, 2011
8:44 am
Boo Hoo those private firms hiring lobbyists….
Fed Intends to Hire Lobbyist in Campaign to Buttress Its Image….
When local governments want money from the state or federal government, they often hire lobbyists with political connections, usually former elected…
The school board voted 7-2 on Tuesday to hire the federal lobbying firm for a one-year, $60000 contract….
Montgomery County officials plan to hire a federal lobbyist to draw more government agencies to the county and help those already operating here to expand…..
Dan Clark, the former chief lobbyist for the Indiana State Teachers Association, has been named executive director of the Indiana Education …

dw

April 21st, 2011
9:01 am

miss cynthia,

you are so full of hypocracy. i can recall not long ago, that “…wouldn’t pull the plug on grandma…” to suit your garbage for the day (your love of everything Obama). now your onboard for the opposite.

Tech Man

April 21st, 2011
9:02 am

CT – A woman that draws a line in the sand and stands on the bedrock of unwavering principles.

Hard to do when standing on the shifting sands of Democratic trade winds.

German

April 21st, 2011
9:13 am

These liberals have no sense of decency. They kill them in the womb and they kill them when they deem them useless. God help them!

Call it like it is

April 21st, 2011
9:14 am

Interesting…..Hmm So who determines when enough is enough. I guess if Cindy Lou was in charges we wouldnt have Lance Armstrong and others who fought cancer and won. Oh well, away with the surplus poplulation, Cynthia “Scrooge.”

Mary

April 21st, 2011
9:18 am

It just would not do for you to try to make sense of this issue here in your column.
This takes the “IQ” ratio of very intelligent people to deal with and understand to the point of compassion. After spending 40 years in the health industry, the doctors are the key—must be held accountable.
Review boards can also be powerful in fiscal resposibility in hospitals.
Thank you for your tireless efforts. Todays generations coming along
are amongst the most insensitive group ever to walk the face of God’s green earth.

John

April 21st, 2011
9:20 am

CT:

Interesting topic. You and JB are sounding like you’re starting to lean right.

But, the problem is much deeper. In fact, it cuts right to the core issue in the USA today. Whenever the right argues that certain entitlement programs need to be cut, you always hear the obligatory comment from a lefties to the effect that children or the elderly will suffer, starve or go without medical care if we cut back. Just last week Nancy Pelosi harped on about how thousands of ederly would go hungry if a certain program were scaled back. Of course, I realize this is political-speak, but why do we have to care for everyone? The reasion the USA came to be is because people wanted to live in a country where they could care for themselves and earn and live as they please. To be sure, I recognize there are needy who can’t care for themselves, but that number is relatively low. If we’re going to redistribute health-care, which is exactly what you and JB are advocating, can’t the exact same be said about every entitlement? Why should I have to pay for children borne out of wedlock or otherwise to poor mothers? Why should I have to pay for the lazy and the illegals? At what point do we draw the line and say that this is unfair to the workers and taxpayers (me)? And, why are people like me labeled a racist anytime we try to have an “honest” discussion like this? Isn’t it time we “honestly” discuss the elephant in the room? Isn’t it time we insist that black leaders and the NAACP come down hard on their own people? You don’t see the same problems in the Jewish community and lord knows they’ve been discriminated against and excluded by pretty much the same groups as the blacks have.

So, here’s question. At what point do we draw the line, and who decides? My personal opinion is that there must be a means test for entitlement and it should be administered by volunteers who are free from bias. I resent it when I hear comments from liberals who complain about tbe wealthy getting too many tax breaks. I’m certainly not wealthy, but even I recognize it’s their money. It does not “belong” to the Gov’t (or anyone else for that matter). How dare anyone purport to tell anyone else how to spend their money. The problem in this country today, as I see it, is that EVERYONE knows of the enormous waste, abuse or flat out fraud that goes on. Walk into virtually any Gov’t building and you’ll see bloated employee rolls, manned by people who really don’t work hard at all. And if you’re white, fuggedibout prompt, friendly service. We all know stories of the new Gov’t employee being chastised by the “veterens” for working too hard and making them look bad. As a result, many of us don’t trust the Gov’t. Why should my taxes be raised to support this? Why should the Gov’t be trusted to doll out money to people who claim to be in need when in fact all of us know that many are simply lazy?

We spend way too much money on literally everything. Why does a MARTA station have to be nicer than many people’s homes? Why do the school buildings of today have to be so eleborate? According to reports, we did much better years ago academically – when our school buildings were nothing more than a one-story cinder block structure with no HVAC. It’s time to seriously consider rolling back our expectations, mindset and spending to the 1930s. We must get back to every able bodied person carrying their own weight. The USA has become bloated and soft. We’ve lost our pride. We’ve also lost our sense of responsibility. This is especially true of our Gov’t. The liberals wailed when we went to war if Afghanistan and Iraq. They cried we are spending money we don’t have. Yet, they stand silent when Obama takes us int Libya. Hypocrites! What in hell are doing in Lybia?

There are so many on welfare and unemployment that nonethless are capable of working. They sufer no disability. They simpluy can’t find the job they really want. Yet, there are tons of jobs out there. If you’re underemployed for short time, who cares? isn’t that better than accepting a handout? Can you imagine your grandfather sitting at home collecting unemployment? No way! Pretty much all of us have parents and grandparents that would have taken ANY job. These people had pride and wouldn’t be caught dead taking a handout. Yet, drive through any low income neighborhood these days and you’ll see tons of able bodied young adults who simply don’t want to work.

Today in the USA we spend money we don’t have and no politician, especially Obama, appears to care at all. I would think that even you, CT, would like the idea of going back to the way we used to run the country given the fact that FDR was in charge in the 1930s. If you agree with me, then I’ll support your so-called death panels.

the gutless left

April 21st, 2011
9:22 am

The quacks on the left keep hypocritically preaching about how everyone needs to sacrafice. Why dont they for once practice what they preach and all get together and abort themselves for the greater good?

Tech Man

April 21st, 2011
9:32 am

One thing is for sure we can’t count on VP Biden to give anything voluntarily to help the poor. Look at his charitable deductions the past several years.

Oh, I noticed Obama took advantage of every known deduction even though he is rich rather than voluntarily paying a little more tax.

jconservative

April 21st, 2011
9:58 am

Tech Man

You miss the point or I did not make it.

The problem is not the insurers. The problem is the screaming about death panels in the 2009 to 2010 health care debate when they have existed in private industry for 40 years.

So the question is still there: are government death panels a “NO NO” but private death panel an “OK OK”?

sport

April 21st, 2011
10:00 am

CT- you seem to be uncapable of taking a look at the greater picture. In this case, don’t you think if the govt spent less revenue on wsteful spending, we wouldn’t have to decide on who dies and who lives.

How in the world you became an award winning writer is way beyond me. You are sick.

Dirty Dawg

April 21st, 2011
10:02 am

Just reading the vitriol and the hate being spewed-forth in these posts has to give you a feeling of hopelessness for our future. Both ’sides’ believe what they believe and aren’t interested in changing those beliefs.

All Cynthia was saying – at least I think she was – is that when we get to that age and stage in life where the cost of treating our ‘maladies’, and the quality of life we can expect even with treatment, we need to stop and consider the options and decide, with our families, what we want to do. Some people have called ‘em ‘death panels’, a piss-poor name for a serious decision process and reality. The individual, their family and their doctors are the ones that should deal with reality and come to a decision.

And as for the attack on the Delta employees on the MARTA train Sunday morning. It’s horrible and MARTA must deal with it by putting officers, including plain-clothed ones, on the trains – armed and willing to use those arms. Was it a hate crime, probably, but then gangs of any description that target others are like that. Skin-heads attacking gays, hispanics, blacks…black kids targeting whoever is in their path with the ‘bank-now-pay-later’ chant…they are all equally vile and need to be stopped. By the way, the Delta employees were not ‘almost beaten to death’, their injuries were described as ‘not serious’…bad enough, but let’s get the story straight, OK?

sport

April 21st, 2011
10:03 am

last time I’m reading this garbage, how you have a job is beyond me.

Back Seater

April 21st, 2011
10:16 am

Don’t you understand, she writes or cut and paste these articles to stir it up so her hits grow and she get’s to keep her job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No other reason for this type of cra[ journalism

Tech Man

April 21st, 2011
10:20 am

jconservative
April 21st, 2011
9:58 am

I was responding to your rant on “private” Lobbyists.

You Asked

April 21st, 2011
10:23 am

I’m sure someone can explain what “Bank Now Play Later” (BNPL) means…

I’m not very hip-hop so I’m sure one of our AJC readers can elucidate the statement for me.

If it means what I think it means 30 thugs beating up two MARTA riders and splitting the contents of their wallet doesn’t sound like much of a bankroll. Hey kids, what ever happened to mowing lawns and paper routes for pocket money?

You Asked

April 21st, 2011
10:24 am

I hate skinheads too. For the record. But skinheads weren’t in the news this week for attacking anyone on MARTA.

Tech Man

April 21st, 2011
10:30 am

jconservative
April 21st, 2011
9:58 am

I have a problem with Dem talking points denying “death panels” and now are celebrating them.

I have a problem with both parties more interested in the success of themselves as a group than for the people they all represent.

I have a problem with Obamacare paving the way to Single-payer and the government making this type of decision as the only provider.

Contrary to googing bloggers there are currently choices in private health care that don’t result in what is termed “death panel” situations. All that is needed to be protected is the advice of a professional agent. Of course Obamacare wants to eliminate them. I have a hard time believing a federally high paid, no requirement to be trained, “navigator” has my family’s best interest at heart to advise our financial health care future.

hobby

April 21st, 2011
10:42 am

granny? granny? where are you??
Why are you not defending CT on this?

Or does the prospect of a death panel seem a little too close to home for an elderly person?

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 21st, 2011
10:53 am

“Yes, we need “death panels”

We already have one. It’s called PLANNED PARENTHOOD.

Really last word

April 21st, 2011
10:56 am

So if an elderly person needs dialysis they are not to get it because they’re going to die anyway . . well if a child (or any body else for that matter who is anything less than an elderly person) needs dialysis who also is going to die anyway or they to be treated differently because they are a child or a person other than an elderly person? Should their life be prolong even if there is little or no chance for survival more than a few months or a year or two?

B Cosby

April 21st, 2011
11:02 am

CT, I agree with your stance on the death panels. Let’s start with journalist that have no worth to society. You good with that?

Really last word

April 21st, 2011
11:06 am

Dirty Dawg April 21st, 2011
10:02 am
Where have you been all your life . . those types of decisions are made everyday (without government mandates) . . . their made with EVERY age group . . . because unlike those Cynthia Tucker types who think end of life only occurs w/the aged . . . it occurs with every age group and family members and/or the sick/dying individual along with medical professionals advice makes the decision having to do with more treatment or a dignified death EVERY day! The difference now vs. ObamaCare is it is mandated and the consultation paid from by taxpayers!!

Kamchak

April 21st, 2011
11:10 am

sport

April 21st, 2011
10:03 am

last time I’m reading this garbage, how you have a job is beyond me.

If I had a ha’penny for every time that sentiment is expressed here, I could pay off the national debt.

And still give every Chinese citizen a hundred dollars..

For a hundred years.

Really last word

April 21st, 2011
11:11 am

As far the MARTA incident . . I use to ride MARTA every day . . and found myself the only white on the train many times . . and I recall more tha one incident when young black men would gather on the train and talk out loud (intentionally) about whites and how they felt about whites so as to intimidate me!! It happened then and I’m sure it is no different now.

AT

April 21st, 2011
11:28 am

Jconservative,
There are no death panels in private industry. Maybe they won’t pay, that, I will give you, but anyone with cash or a plan that will play can get care. It doesn’t matter if you are 106 years old, your money is good. Cynthia is describing the necessity, under gov’t controlled healthcare, of the gov’t making the decision that care for certain people is not worth the effort and/or cost, regardless of their ability to pay, and that they should just go ahead and die, for the benefit of “we”. That’s what rationing comes down to. It destroys yet another freedom, for the “benefit” of “all” of us.

LeeH1

April 21st, 2011
11:44 am

Lower costs by investing in more schools and graduating more doctors. If we doubled the number of docotrs, nurses, pharmacists, etc., the price of medical care would go down. However, as long as the AMA tells the government how many docotrs can be educated each year, in order to keep competition low, then we will have high prices. Double the doctors and halve the costs!

Mike K.

April 21st, 2011
11:55 am

“Those will undoubtedly be very painful conversations. But we simply don’t have the money to spend to prolong the life of a terminally ill 87-year-old for a few weeks.”

This statement sums up the problem with the left-wing approach to health care – it’s basically communism. Who doesn’t have the money to pay for prolonging the life of an 87 year old? Liberals have done their best to create a health care system in which the government pays for everyone’s health care after they turn 65 and then turned around and argued that rationing is necessary because the costs of health care are shared by all of society. It’s basically the same as bread lines in the USSR.

If health care were provided in a free market, as opposed to the government picking up 95% of the costs for the elderly, then people would consider costs. A lot of terminal patients would forgo expensive treatments with low success probabilities, in favor of leaving a larger estate to the living. That’s reasonable. However, the decision of whether or not someone who can afford to pay his health care bills should or should not receive a treatment should be up to the patient himself; the decision should not be left to a faceless, government bureaucrat like it would be in Cynthia’s ideal future.

Michael6179

April 21st, 2011
12:15 pm

When will readers of this paper come to the realization that Cynthia Tucker and Jay Bookman are nothing more than far left lunatics? The fact they get paid is a mystery, but if you look at the circulation drop of the AJC, maybe there will be an end in sight for these two fools.

Michael6179

April 21st, 2011
12:21 pm

I agree with fed-up….Liberals really don’t care about the less fortunate….they are simply vote scavengers. They know if they say they will give more to this entitlement program or that social program, that the lazy do nothing’s of society will vote for them. How do you think Obama got elected? It wasn’t the vote of hard working, educated American’s. It was the vote of the moocher class, and the uneducated, uninformed, american idol crowd. How else can you explain people voting for Obama to run the country, when this unqualified fool couldn’t run a lemonade stand without putting it into massive debt.

Libwit

April 21st, 2011
12:24 pm

“If we keeping spending our health care dollars disproportionately on the elderly, we will have little left to spend on children. That makes for an upside-down society that cannot thrive for long.”

How ironic that the liberals who tout Republicans want to take away Medicare/caid and throw old people out to the curb apparently want to do just that with that farce Obamacare. Use the old people through scare tactics (lies) to keep Democrat political hacks in office (including the current one in the White House who can only go around to colleges on “town hall” meetings with no resistance – he’s been nothing but a campaigner for the last two years in office). Then kick them to the curb.

How pathetically hypocritically disgusting. But it should come as no surprise. Liberals have no shame. And the other ironic part of Cynthia’s whine is even mentioning children. Why, there aren’t even children BORN yet who are going to be paying for all the liberal/Dimocrat spending wastes on entitlement programs. Oh the painful irony of it all. Literally.

Oh I feel a tremor beneath the surface that is going to overcome Democrats next November.

Michael6179

April 21st, 2011
12:26 pm

Hey Lee H…..Are you kidding me? Where did you come up with that nonsense? Or should I guess…Nancy Pelosi? Harry Reid? I think they should have invested more money in your education.

Neal and Bob

April 21st, 2011
12:59 pm

Death Panels sounds like a great idea Cindi if we start with 56 year olds (your age) and then limit them to idiots named Cynthia Tucker. And if it works…who knows? You could start a trend. God I hate brain dead liberals.

Hakon

April 21st, 2011
1:01 pm

Tucker, Please explain to us how you have come to this kind of rationalization for something that doesn’t exist. I think that was the wording you used in 2009. Here are your words about the idea of death panels “Quite honestly, I’m so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn’t (in the bill)” Ignorant, stupid, or liar, which do you choose to describe yourself?

emmysmom

April 21st, 2011
1:03 pm

My health care choices are none of your business and certainly not the business of the federal government. They have proven, many times over, they are inept and cannot and do not make good choices/decisions about anything.

Arnold, you and your sister should have a living will. That will insure you will get no care at whatever point you want it terminated. As for the rest of us, mind your own business.

WCC

April 21st, 2011
1:17 pm

I agree with the need to better manage end-of-life care, but it’s not that easy. I went through this with my 81-year-old father, whose kidneys failed after emergency surgery. He was put on dialysis, and stayed there until doctors concluded, three months later, that he was not going to recover and recommended letting him go. Up to that point I hoped he might get better, as he had done in the past. It’s hard to let your loved ones go and, unless they are able to make end-of-life decisions themselves, doctors and family will tend to keep them alive as long as possible.

tron

April 21st, 2011
1:22 pm

If conservative christians’ were true believers’ they wouldn’t need healthcare services. God should be their insurance company. Prove your faith and help out your Country, put it all in God’s hands. Amen.

Kamchak

April 21st, 2011
1:24 pm

WCC

My condolences for your loss.

My Da passed away 18 months ago due to liver cancer.

buck@gon

April 21st, 2011
1:34 pm

“Those will undoubtedly be very painful conversations. But we simply don’t have the money to spend to prolong the life of a terminally ill 87-year-old for a few weeks.”

Let us see, Civil Cynthia, shall we? How about a nice thought experiment? I’m betting dollars to ding-dongs that when Jimmy Carter turns 87 in couple of years, Obama, Sibelius or whomever is President will move heaven and earth to get him to damn healthcare he desperately begs for.

How about when Bill Clinton can’t chase anymore tail when he’s 87 because he’s got some VD? Think Sibelius/Obama would tell him to “take a pill” and drop into a grave? Don’t think so? How about our GREAT PRESIDENT himself? Aren’t you just fabricating a monarchy out of Washington with this whole healthcare crap? It will be ONLY the politicians who will have the benefits, only their lives will be worthy, as deemed by the political process that is no less tyrannical than that of Napolean or Louis XIV.

Yeah, we need another “adult conversation”. As you know, because you read my posts, I have already debunked your self-flattery there. You aren’t capable of an adult conversation about much at all, “Civil” Cynthia.

What’s more is that you, like our GREAT PRESIDENT, are capable of talking about talking about something. When it comes to addressing details of the issues or answering questions, both of you can not stand even the lightest scrutiny.

Yes, again I am calling you out, Cynthia, personally to address these concerns directly. You are a moral coward with a station and a title beyond your capability. You can not answer your critics, you are a demagogue, you fail utterly to convince, and you refuse to engage in reason and logic.

Mark Duch

April 21st, 2011
1:58 pm

You won a Pulitzer? What good is a talk about “limited resources,” if you don’t recognize that the main function of all resources is to keep people alive? Somehow, I’m quite certain you’re all for spending our limited resources on high-speed rail in a country that already has an interstate highway system in place. Never mind the fact that you posted an article in this very column on August 12, 2009 expressing disgust and disdain at the very accusation that Democrats were pushing death panels. You’re a jersey-sporting team player, not a thinker. Remind me to ignore anything that says Pulitzer on it, from now on.

casual observer

April 21st, 2011
2:00 pm

I FREAKING REFUSE to put my family’s health in the care of incompetent IDIOTS like the author of this column OR a Politican!!.

Buster Collins

April 21st, 2011
2:06 pm

Tucker:

If you are trying to flip this argument to make a point, no genuine conservative would ever promote such an idea.

If you are in fact serious, then the Department in Child Services where you live needs to be contacted because you are clearly demented and I fear for your child’s safety.

sam

April 21st, 2011
2:31 pm

its a tough one CT…funny, people on here would rather immediately go into attack mode than put some actual thought in to the issue. still cant figure out why they bother reading your stuff if you are so horrible. would be like me spending time listening to the goons on the radio they get their daily affirmation from.

Mark Duch

April 21st, 2011
2:34 pm

sam – Nice try, but false equivalence. No one on the radio shows you’re talking about is recommending that the government deliberately kill our Nation’s citizens. Not even close.

sam

April 21st, 2011
2:39 pm

not what i said at all…

B Cosby

April 21st, 2011
2:39 pm

Tucker, I hope your brother is a better doctor then you are a columnist.
If your child is injured in a car accident, and needs to be put on a kidney machine or some other life saving device to save her life, that would probably be a different story in your eyes, by why would anyone else care. Unplug everyone. Hey, there’s a thought for jobs created by the liberals. We could hire someone to go around to different hospitals and unplg people. Now that’s jus good government right there!!!

sam

April 21st, 2011
2:40 pm

point is, why are people wasting time reading an article by someone the hate so much and disagree with on every level no matter what the topic is. thats the point.

sam

April 21st, 2011
2:41 pm

so apparently the ‘false equivalence’ is from your end

Buster Collins

April 21st, 2011
2:49 pm

Atlanta Constitution editorial writer Cynthia Tucker, one-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, died today at the age of XX, after a the US Health and Human Services Medical Cost-Containment Board recommended a suspension of health care. Tucker, who hit bottom after being vilified for years after lobbying for “death panels” that the government ultimately embraced, passed peacefully after being injected with the now popular Domein drug.

At her beside was her estranged and emancipated child (name, sex and age withheld) and former like-minded columnist Jay Bookman, who said he was “honored” to flip the switch on the Kevorkian 3000 Terminator that administers the Domein drug.

One time protesters of Tucker’s cause celebrated outside the Atlanta area Home for Discarded Elderly. “It’s fitting for this to happen,” said one protester who wished to remain nameless. “Now that she is gone hopefully society will feed on the irony of Tucker’s passing and move to dismantle former President Obama’s ‘Die to Save America Act.’”

Funeral services are pending approval of funds from the US Department of Waste Disposal.

Kamchak

April 21st, 2011
2:49 pm

point is, why are people wasting time reading an article by someone the hate so much and disagree with on every level no matter what the topic is. thats the point.

Better point — why do these people declare their intentions never to read CT evah, evah again, yet come back day after day either with the same nom-de-blog or a new sock-puppet.

buck@gon

April 21st, 2011
2:55 pm

Mark Duch & Sam,

On the contrary, no one on our end is saying “kill anyone at all”.

Right now, it is apparently THEIR end that is saying WE are going to kill seniors (with cuts to medicare) even as THEY with their damn death panels go about doing the very thing they accuse us of doing.

Free tax-payer funded termination of pregnancies up to and including the moment of birth AND complete denail of coverage to seniors for any damn reason the HHS thinks we need to save money. THAT is the legacy of the modern democrat “logic” and “reason”.

I’m sure Joseph Goebbels and Joseph Stalin had effective PR campaigns that involved killing people too. I guess I haven’t learned enough history to learn the specifics and how they might be better than the total Jedi-mind-trick whammy the Democrats seem to have on their increasingly stupid base.

Halftrack

April 21st, 2011
2:56 pm

CT; We don’t need no death panels. I know an older person who was on dialysis for several years. She still contributed to society and her community by doing Income Tax returns. She was a very productive person. When we look at dollars more than safeguarding the weak and struggling of our Nation, then we have lost all moral authority and compassion. Do wounded soldiers need to be looked at by a death panel? The same goes for babies. Suppose you developed a disease or were in an accident, would you want a death panel to review your case?

Dave

April 21st, 2011
2:58 pm

OMG, this is too funny. The proponents of Obamacare vociferously screemed the goverment must take over health care because the evil, profiteering, insurance companies would not insure people with pre-existing conditions are now advocating the pre mature death of these same people in order to save money. More than likly the purpose of their sudden interest in reduced government spending is to continue financial support for ACORN and NPR. Can some intellegent person tell me how many dialysis treatments can be administered with the money saved by eliminating, ACORN and NPR subsidies? No wonder these Democrats weren’t concerned about cost of insuring people with pre-exisiting conditions, they weren’t going to treat them anyway. They should be ashamed. They are the “Death Party.” Kill babies, and kill old people.

Hunter

April 21st, 2011
3:12 pm

It’s christian orthodoxy to rot like a vegetable until the ticker stops….

TnGelding

April 21st, 2011
3:24 pm

Death with dignity!

Lord, give us the wisdom to know when it’s time and the courage to go!

wendy

April 21st, 2011
3:30 pm

Religion is opiate for the masses- opiates are great when taking the celestial dirt-nap.

Dave

April 21st, 2011
3:34 pm

Wait until you see the make up of the “Death Panels.” These will be political hacks chosen by Obama. Look for Van Jones, Andy Stern, Barbara Streisand, Jessie Jackson and others. Visualize the future: you have a burst appendix, you are rushed to the hospital,you are over forty and because of your advanced age, your situation must be reviewed by the Death Panel; the hospital’s “Death Panel Coordinator” brings you the 24 pages of government forms to be filled out; these must be filled out, no exceptions if you want the surgery, you know how the government is about forms; these forms will be sent over night mail; (Note: No FAX or E-Mail, The Government requires the use of the postal service because they need the business); after several days or weeks, the forms are returned because you missed checking the box indicating whether you were alive or deceased on the date of filing; if you are still alive, you check the box and return the forms. Think it can’t happen? Come people we are talking about the government here. Think Post Office, Think DMV, anything is possible. These fifteen people are going to review every surgery in the entire country before surgery. Before the first year is out, want to bet this department will have more employees that the IRS. Within a few years, the “Death” Department budget will exceed our total health care cost of the entire nation.

Samantha

April 21st, 2011
3:40 pm

dave,

It’d be cool if Barbara sang a few bars of “the way we were” as you drift into never never land.

Dave

April 21st, 2011
3:59 pm

Boy, you liberals are beyond redemption. You have always wanted to give away “other peoples” money, not your own. Now, you are eager to kill your relatives, neighbors and friends so you won’t have to pay for their health care. These are the very people who paid taxes to pay for your sorry a-s to get an education. These are the people who fought wars so you would have the freedom to display your stupidity and ignorance on the pages of this site. The fact that you don’t believe in God delineates why you have arrived at this point in your miserable life with no redeeming moral compass.

0311/0317 -1811/1801

April 21st, 2011
4:01 pm

TnGelding
April 21st, 2011
3:24 pm

Death with dignity!

“Lord, give us the wisdom to know when it’s time and the courage to go!”

Yes ………. but not some pathetic, pussillanimous, power hungry government panel.

Dave

April 21st, 2011
4:24 pm

Samantha–try Karen Carpenter’s version.

Dick Hertz

April 21st, 2011
4:46 pm

Funny thing is, there are no liberal politicians in this country besides Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich. Every other politician, from Obama (Black Mitt Romney) on down, would have been at least a Rockefeller Republican until the Reagan Revolution when the Birchers took over the country. Since then the left has moved right, the right has moved far right, and the kooky fringe is running the GOP.
Cripes, a liberal would at least give it to you straight-what the kooks call a death panel is simply end of life counseling. That’s very different from an insurance company cutting you off because you cost too much, or the GOP’s Social Darwinism approach that comes straight out of Germany’s darker days (Work brings freedom! Work brings health insurance! No Workie, no Eatie!).

Jerseygal

April 21st, 2011
5:15 pm

Hey Cynthia,
I guess this means you’ll be pulling the plug on your momma, huh! Wouldn’t want to waste the money on the elderly!

stepper

April 21st, 2011
5:40 pm

You are truly a shill for the Obama administration. Do you ever have an independent thought? I move to nominate you as the death Czar to make those administration life and death decisions. God save the white elderly.

Kamchak

April 21st, 2011
6:10 pm

I am a legend in my own mind. I don’t excel at much ,but I own this blog, it’s all I have really. I have my own bag of clever names to call people, and super cool comebacks, so watch out. I’m super witty and smart too. Just watch how I correct someone’s typo later on. That’ll show them who’s boss.

Oh and by the way, if Ms. Tucker says something, you better be on her side b/c she is even more insightful than I.

Kamchak

April 21st, 2011
6:14 pm

Good to see that nothing untoward has happened to my name-jacking leg-humper.

Yes, we need “death panels”

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Yes, we need “death panels”

234 comments Add your comment

About Cynthia Tucker

Search this blog

Recent Posts

Archives

Twitter and Facebook

My latest tweets

All AJC blogs »

Tell us what you think about the site

Subscribe »

Customer Care »

AJC Services

Sections

Other Editions

Guides

Affiliates

Advertising

AJC Sites