Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Congress / Politics / Woods Blackburn Won't Deny Death Panels
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 7:39 AM
"What we have here is the fact that that door is open."Here's yet another installment in today's Pith Kook Roundup: Rep. Marsha Blackburn dances around the question of whether end-of-life counseling sessions are death panels, then insists incorrectly in this interview that old people would be required to attend these sessions.
Comments (11)
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Oh for crying out loud, this woman is a blithering idiot. She claims to have read the bill, but clearly is unable to comprehend what she is reading.
See for yourself: The whole bill, HR 3200 (all 1018 pages in a PDF file) is here: http://tr.im/xadu . The section Blackburn is obsessing about, section 1233, covers pages 424-434, on the subject of "Advance Care Planning Consultation." And for good measure, here's a link to the section of the federal code on Medicare, 42 U.S.C. 1395, which that part of HR 3200 seeks to amend: http://tr.im/xaej .
Blackburn refers to section 1233 as "the instruction, which is a mandate." Puh-leeze. It's legislative language that defines for purposes of Medicare coverage what qualifies as advance care planning consultation, what specifically that consultation entails, who can do it, and when. The only "shall" in there is language saying that if one is going to have such a consultation, here are the elements that a medical professional doing the consultation has to include in the conversation. That's clearly a good thing: the bill is saying if we taxpayers are going to cover these consultations via Medicare, which is a terrific idea, then they need to be professionally done and appropriately comprehensive.
But having the consultation itself is not mandated - that's an invention of Blackburn's little brain and those of her fellow obstructionists. Quoting from recent L.A. Times reporting (http://tr.im/xahC) on this aspect of the proposed legislation: "The provision was designed to allow Medicare to pay doctors who counsel patients about planning for end-of-life decisions. The consultations would be voluntary and would provide information about living wills, healthcare proxies, pain medication and hospice."
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You all keep pointing out what's actually in the bills -- as if the truth somehow mattered to Marsha. It never has and never will. The woman is a political whore who will do anything to get and keep power and rile the base to action. Facts are irrelevant to her work, except for the effort required to dispose of facts that happen to be inconvenient to her causes.
God...I wish I lived in this woman's district so that I could cast my vote to kick her out on her ass!! I hate it when she's on TV and they put the TN beside her name. Cringe inducing.
BTW, where is her district? She keeps getting re-elected, so I want to stay away from her peeps...nutjobs.
" BTW, where is her district?"
Clarksville to Brentwood and Franklin to Germantown (Memphis), and points in between. Rich white folks are very happy with Marsha.
Will, you can get to her district in a lot of places. It's one of the most gerrymandered districts you'll ever see. It starts with a big suburban clump in Germantown next to Memphis, runs along the line of some border counties on the southern edge of the state, cuts up through a narrow corridor to pick up more suburban Republicans in Williamson County, and then continues along another capillary until it blows out again at Fort Campbell.
"I hate it when she's on TV and they put the TN beside her name."
You think that's bad, sometimes CSpan lists Nashville, along with Franklin, as one of her constituent cities. She has a tiny sliver of Davidson county but it leads the viewers from elsewhere to believe she is our congressman. Wrap your heads around that all of you who are embarrassed by Cooper!
How the hell did Blackburn even get elected? I know there are a lot of idiots out there but, c'mon! She's about as bright and hateful, all at the same time, as Sarah Palin! Send her up to Alaska and give us all a break.
"She has a tiny sliver of Davidson county but it leads the viewers from elsewhere to believe she is our congressman. Wrap your heads around that all of you who are embarrassed by Cooper!"
Thank God she doesn't represent my district. Unfortunately, I live in Cooper's. I really didn't have too much of a problem with him until the Health Care Reform issues.
Maybe if the Public Option doesn't pass, he'll have a decent primary opponent.
There is no need for 'death panels', as the small amount of doctors vs the added coverage of millions of more persons enter the playing field; death for many is inevitable.
Universal health care is flawed in European countries, and Canadians come here for a lot of medical care. The government must tax the rich, which means the doctors and surgeons included, to allow universal health care. The results are low incentive to earn money as a care provider, low incentive to increase in medical/pharmaceutical research, etc. due to higher taxes. Upon what basis must I be required to pay money for the health care of the irresponsible, drug addict, alcoholic? Basing universal health care upon an isolated class 'specific welfare', not the General Welfare our Constitution speaks of. Health care is not mentioned as one of the duties of the Federal Government under the context of General Welfare in the Constitution; it is reserved for the states if at all. Using coercive means of universal health care takes away the element of charity, free choice of providers, and the available funds to support private charities for the truly needy. It has been shown that if health care is 'free', it is usually abused. This causes restrictions and creates waiting lines for the truly needy. This all leads to euthanasia, whereby the elder will be considered not as ‘productive’ members of society and must sacrifice for the younger. The ‘whole’ is lifted above the individual to a subjective and arbitrary goal.
People must remember that Marsha Blackburn is a liar and an opportunist. She could not care less about Tennessee or Tennesseans. So, why be shocked when she spouts lies and hatred that she has been spoon fed by the lies of Rush Limbaugh and FOX News. I continue to be amazed that thinking people vote for this airhead.
