Death Panels

I love this phrase. I sounds like something out of Soylent Green. Pretty soon we'll have to eat our dead, like cockroaches. It is oddly appropriate that it was the brainchild of a Republican senator, given the fervor with which the current field of presidential wannabes is willing to revive that sort of rhetoric. The sad thing is that we've always had death panels of one sort or another. For the most part, these have been run by the insurance companies. Think about that for a moment: life and death decisions about rationing health care made by people who have only a profit motive. Chilling, isn't it?

But now the Republicans would like to have it both ways. They would like to have all the benefits of tough talk about health care, but somehow also blame the Democrats for being responsible for the heartlessness of their own idea. It sounds screwy, I know, but apparently they've found an audience for that twisted little bit of reasoning. Go figure.

CD