Death Panels?

How fucking stupid are people on this planet? How insistent are we to confirm our biases in spite of all facts? It seems like a good chunk of people will believe exactly what they want, no matter what the reality of the situation is. What I'm referring to obviously is the stupidity of the fanatics on both sides of the political spectrum claiming that the Obama administration's new health care initiative includes some sort of program in which sick, elderly and disabled people will have to face a panel of bureaucrats who will weigh the pros and cons of providing them with the necessary care to keep them functioning as members of society. Really? Would anyone actually propose legislation like this? Apparently someone has, and his name was Adolph Hitler, and that's who Obama is now being compared to. Well if that's what the legislation says, it certainly is more than fair to draw comparisons between the two politicians, so let us take a moment to see if these so called "death panels" actually exist in the new health care initiative.

Well it turns out that no, there's no mention in the plan of deciding who can get care from the program based on age, or disability. In fact what has been complained about by uneducated and unread fools all over the USA has nothing to do with panels at all, or even whether or not a patient will receive medical treatment. The part of the initiative (mostly) Republicans have been bitching about is ensuring that all terminal or elderly citizens who use the public option are guaranteed to have a free counseling session with their doctor to arrange their affairs and obtain advice about how to deal with it. Obviously leading members of the GOP will squelch these rumours and set the record straight right? Apparently not, as the rumours largely started with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin making a post on Facebook of all places about death panels and her poor son who was born with down syndrome being somehow vulnerable to said panels. And Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley echoed the stupidity of Palin before backtracking slightly and settling for saying that the legislation isn't clear, and is therefor in danger of being implemented incorrectly. How exactly are you thinking it would be implemented incorrectly Chuck? You think the legislation is written expressly so that Obama can choose who lives or dies? Give me a break.

Now surely if any Democrat or Republican would just publicly read the legislation dealing with this specific problem, or at least summarize and explain it, this protesting would go away right? Well, no... And they've tried fairly hard to be quite honest. To give credit where it's due; Republican Senator from Palin's home state of Alaska Lisa Murkowski spoke out against the propaganda recently, but seemingly to no effect. Instead of overpowering the fringe idiots who haven't even read the legislation with facts and superior intellect, the Democrats have once again bent over and spread their cheeks as they struck the end of life counseling provision from the health care plan.

What a joke it is that the Republicans are in an ever shrinking minority, reduced to fanatics and zealots who are so uninformed anyone with a grade 6 education is embarrassed by their ridiculousness, still overpower and crush a Democratic majority. The worst part is, they win when they're more than just wrong, they're plain lying. Disappointing that this is where the rhetoric of politics has taken the most powerful nation on this planet.