Obama and His Death Panel

Last week, Sarah Palin interjected herself into the national health care debate through a post on her Facebook page. As is fitting for such a venue, it was filled with ridiculousness. It even came complete with a link to a speech the looniest lady in Congress, Michele "The Census Will Lead to Internment" Bachmann. Crazier than her link to Bachmann is this passage:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Admittedly, such a system would be "downright evil." She set up that straw man and knocked him down good. Nobody is proposing anything near what she is talking about. Most likely, she's referring to the end of life consultations that are discussed in the House version of the Bill. And that passage? It was put in there by a Republican.

Representative Earl Blumenauer (the funny little guy with the bicycle pin) is taking issue with how his own party has attacked this passage and set up a page addressing the most common myths about this passage. The following are all clearly false, and explained in the document he released:

• Myth: Patients will be forced to have this consultation once every five years.
• Myth: Patients will be forced to sign an advance care directive (or living will)
• Myth: Patients will have to see a health care professional chosen by the government.

Each argument that the GOP presents against health care reform seems to more often than not be an outright lie. Rather than reporting these lies as facts, I'd like to see the media investigate the claims a bit.