Dan Calabrese is yet another to highlight that Governor Palin foretold of “death panels,” for which she was mercilessly criticized. The truth is, unfortunately, that she was right–again. As she pointed out Tuesday on Facebook:
And they called us liars when we spoke of “death panels” – faceless bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor to make life and death decisions about a loved one’s survival. It doesn’t sound so far fetched anymore, does it?Via Cain TV, Calabrese writes (emphasis added):
Not that she’ll get credit for it, but when Sarah Palin warned of “death panels” resulting from the constructs of ObamaCare, this is exactly what she meant: Someone needs something or they’re going to die, and some government bureaucrat who values the systemic ramifications of the matter above all else, gets to decide what will happen.Read Dan Calabrese’s full article here.
In this case, DHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made her decision: She would not intervene to save the life of 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, a cystic fibrosis patient from Pennsylvania. Sarah is, as I write this, weeks away from death if she doesn’t get a lung transplant. That, you’d think, would serve as a call to action for anyone who might be able to make the transplant happen. But not Kathleen Sebelius, because adults are also waiting for lungs, and the rules say no one under 12 can be prioritized over adults.
Sebelius claimed rules are rules and she had no authority to intervene, despite a letter from several members of Congress asserting that she absolutely does (including two from Pennsylvania). Sebelius did trouble herself to “order a policy review,” but she refused to take action to save Sarah’s life.
Fortunately, District Court Judge Michael Baylson issued a restraining order prohibiting Sebelius from applying the policy that will block Sarah from getting the lung transplant.
[...]
Lungs are available. A 10-year-old girl needs one or she will die. But a government policy says she can’t have one and no one will do anything to set aside or get around the policy so a 10-year-old girl will not die. Or at least no one would until Judge Baylson came along, thank God.
This is the death panel. It is exactly what Palin was talking about. It is not a group of hooded men sitting atop a raised dias, informing unfortunate souls, “You have been selected for death,” but it has the exact same effect. The government makes rules to govern the allocation of resources in health care, and the rules leave no room for flexibility when a person’s life is on the line and common sense argues that flexibility is absolutely necessary. Only the intervention of this judge, assuming it is allowed to stand, can save this young girl’s life – because government has no idea how to stop tripping over its own policies.
By the way, about Sebelius’s claim that she couldn’t act because she lacks the authority. Two things about that: 1. She doesn’t have the authority to shake down the health care industry for money to pay for ObamaCare implementation either, but that’s not stopping her. 2. People who believe it is important to make something happen find a way. They make phone calls. They knock on doors. They call in favors. They get done what needs to get done. People who don’t really want to help claim they don’t have the authority and leave it at that.
We know what Kathleen Sebelius’s priorities are. What a despicable woman. Oh, by the way, I don’t remember her boss issuing any directive to find a way to help either. Palin has been right about a lot of things.
