Multiple Republican Leaders Voted In 2003 For Measure Similar To Current “Government Euthanasia” Bill
GOP officials John Boehner, Thaddeus McCotter, Johnny Isakson, and Chuck Grassley all voted in 2003 for a measure very similar to the one in the current House health care bill they now suggest in various ways could lead to government-encouraged euthanasia.
As Time’s Amy Sullivan reported late last night, Grassley voted for the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, which — ready? — provided coverage for “counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning.”
The only difference between the 2003 bill and the House Dem one that’s inspired the “euthanasia” talk, Sullivan reports, is that the earlier one “applied only to terminally ill patients.”
Let’s go back and check the roll call on that 2003 vote to see who else voted for it. Turns out Boehner, McCotter and Isakson all did, too.
Boehner and McCotter, as you know, have said that Medicare coverage of end of life consultations could lead to “government encouraged euthanasia.” While Isakson supports end of life counseling generally, he opposes the House bill because it allows “government to incentivize doctors by offering them money to conduct end-of-life counseling.” Grassley said people are “right to fear” that government could “decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”
Fun postscript: GOP Rep. John Mica of Florida voted for the 2003 bill — and last week he denounced the current House measure for creating Medicare-funded “death counselors.”
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Update: Edited to fix a quote from Isakson’s office.
Update II: Boehner’s office responds that the comparison is “idiotic.”
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Yes, and the leaders of Tort Reform in the Republican Congress had all sued for damages at least once.
What else is new?
Greg you need to copy this to Rachel Maddow and KO and Ed.
foster has a good idea, Greg – especially Rachel since y’all have mutual admiration society -
One more thing which I said last night and I thought bears repeating. Because the provision in the 2003 bill applied only to those medicare recipients that were already deemed terminally ill, if you go by the “death panel” logic it was even more egregious. Basically by their logic, people who were already deemed to be at the end of their life would be subjected to doctors telling them to just go ahead and croak already and save everybody some money. These would be the people most vulnerable to the kind of coercion that the deathers claim doctors would engage in. Of course its all bullshit anyway but I just want to put their vote in 2003 into the context of what they are saying today.
I’m assuming you’ve got requests for comments to everyone?
I’m really curious: Would Sen. Grassley would be willing to support using the same language that was in the 2003 bill in the current reform legislation?
BBQ – If you think you can trap a Repug with their hypocrisy…they are immune.
great point, SG — and thanks for the idea on this.
This is the kind of “logic” they use, and it’s also a good example of why you can’t trap them with their own hypocrisy – they don’t care:
“it “incentivizing doctors who take Medicare to provide this counseling.” Grassley said people are “right to fear” that government could “decide when to pull the plug on grandma.””
One would think that Medicare receiving doctors would want to prolong the lives of their patients on Mediare – not pull the plug.
SMH.
Guess the public has already forgotten how the Republicans had DR Frist examine Terri Schiavo in Florida, using a tv screen from Washington DC in The Senate, to go against the wishes of the Terri to pull the plug if anything bad ever happened to her.
Remember that ONE PERSON Legislation by The Republicans, that Bush rushed back from Texas to sign?
Guess Grassley still wants that involvement by The Government!
What can I say? We are done for. This is checkmate, I guess. Obamacare will surely pass now.
“What can I say? We are done for. This is checkmate, I guess. Obamacare will surely pass now.”
It’s going to pass anyway. Thank you for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts that an inbred like you will enjoy.
“It’s going to pass anyway.”
Yes it is. All the tantrums notwithstanding.
See here is the thing, the commenters here who have been claiming this could really lead to death panels ought to be pi$$ed off to learn that Republican members of Congress have misled them into believing their fearmongering over a measure they themselves had already voted for in the past. But do you think any of them will come and denounce their own leadership?
Of course not. It is what it is.
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Has HuffPo always been this much like USA Today? Or has sumpin changed?
You know I think SG is right on. But it’s too late. Palin’s deed is done. Millions believe Obama wants death panels and sadly there isn’t much that can be done. However, Digby has an excellent point about this very same thing.
“The hacks and zealots aren’t reachable, but others are. There are legitimate debates to be had about health care on top of that, and keeping pressure on Grassley, Baucus, Enzi and others is important. Yet currently, it seems like a big fight just to get the public discussion back to the realm of basic sanity. That’s not accidental. But having more informed, interested, basically sane people at town hall events would help.”
Palin’s deed is done, but getting the debate back to “basic sanity” has to be the focus. I just don’t think pointing out Republicans were the first to support death panels accomplishes that.
By Jazus, this world is becoming stranger and stranger.
Back in 2003 a shower of GOPshites wanted to euthanize me ould granny.
Six years later, they want to keep her alive for ever.
Granny said that back in 2003 she did not want that shower of GOPshites to bump her off, but now all their lies and hypocritical comments have made her so sick, that she thinks she is ready to die.
I warned her that if she decided to die now, Senator Grassley would denounce her for not having taking up his 2003 offer, in a timely manner, and that it is now too late to do so. Chuck Grassley will not tolerate such procrastinating, and under no circumstances will he allow her to die now.
Chris The Fold
The whole point of course is that they aren’t death panels and the sooner journalists get these Republicans to try to justify their vote in 2003 for essential the same thing, the sooner Democrats in Congress as well as the DNC can saturate the media with their answers pointing to their hypocrisy. I don’t know if you have noticed but there is a kind of creeping momentum in the media finally towards calling republicans liars over health care reform. Both the NYTimes and the WaPo have debunked a lot of the stuff they have said about the bills and I think pretty soon it will filter through to everywhere but FoxNews and the Washington Times. That means people who can still be presuaded will start seeing article after article about how much they have been lied to by the Republican Party and it will hurt their credibility even further. Which is saying something when you consider how low their approval ratings already are.
There was this special on Lee Atwater earlier this year, i wish someone would put it on youtube, and they talked about how Lee Atwater’s strategy to get Ronald Reagan reelected and Bush 41 elected was to saturate media outlets with so many lies that they would be overwhelmed from fact checking them. Now we finally have the technology to fight back on that kind of stuff and the more we can do so the better chance we have of shifting public opinion back in our favor. And the quickest way to do that IMHO is to expose prominent, supposedly “moderate”, Republicans as hypocrites.
“And the quickest way to do that IMHO is to expose prominent, supposedly “moderate”, Republicans as hypocrites.”
You’re right, sg. Just as a matter of course, it’s far better to expose hypocrisy where you see it whether it’s efficacious or not.
Of course it would help if President Obama came out today and called Chuck Grassley a liar during his townhall and then explained that he probably had to lie because of the unhinged base of his party.
Won’t happen but I can dream can’t I?
” Won’t happen but I can dream can’t I?”
I feel ya.
However, at the moment, I just wish he wasn’t going there. I’m really worried about these town halls in places like Montana.
This is what you call straight up, 100% AWESOME SAUCE!
“I’ve got facts on my side, and you’ve got Glenn Beck”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/rick-larsen-ive-got-facts_n_259571.html
Uhmm Tena, you know who the Senator is from Montana right?
Max Baucus
That’s definitely not a coincidence.
“That’s definitely not a coincidence.”
I know the reason – I’m talking outside the reason why he’s going. I don’t like the atmosphere in the country and it scares me because he’s more vulnerable outside DC right now.
It’s not a coincidence. And his office has been protested by those who advocate a single-payer option. Next stop is Grand Junction CO. After he visits Yellowstone this weekend. He’s on a Teddy Roosevelt tour, and DK’s Friday poll is very favorable to Dems this week.
I hope something is shifting and I pray for his safety and hold him in the Light.
Baucus’s office has been protested.
So what this is typical polictical tatics used by both parties.
81 Democrats voted for the Iraq War in the House
29 Democrats voted for the Iraq War in the Senate
Sent our troops off to war then did not support them and wished for failure at a level I have never seen in my life. Murtha stood on the Senate floor called our Marines cold blooded killers before charges were even filed. All were aquited and not one apology from the jerk. Reid declares the war is lost. Yeah way to support the troops you voted to send to war, you sorry SOB’s. Same thing they did to those they sent to Vietnam but on a worse level.
So cry cry cry about these three blowhards that did exactly what most other DC blowhards have done.
Whining is better than solutions don’t you know!
yippie – put a sock in it – that is totally irrelevant to the subject at hand.
Nice try at throwing a red herring out there. Now run along.
lefties like death
abortion anyone!
@ SG, oh yeah, “The Boogeyman.” It was on PBS. He was an evil man and on his deathbed realized he had done things wrongly. But hey, maybe if Obama had his death panels back then, Atwater would have been put to death quicker and not confessed his sins??
Saturating the media I totally understand. It’s getting the media to focus on “basic sanity” I have no faith in. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m just saying forget death panel **** altogether and move on to factual issues facing Americans. Of course there are no death panels. Call them liars and keep going.
“lefties like death
abortion anyone!”
Yep. I have one permanently scheduled for every Wednesday afternoon. JUST BECAUSE I CAN!
BWAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Yippie is the poster child for having retroactive abortions!!
Chris The Fold
I just take a different tact on stuff like that. I personally think the Democrats should slam back hard on any and all smears that Republicans try to propogate against them. Historically Democrats have tried to stay above the fray and not respond to that kind of thing. You had Kerry not responding to the Swift Boat ads, you had Gore not responding to the way the media had caricatured him, all the way back to Mondale allowing Bush to smear him over national security. The more we act like it isn’t there the more it takes hold and grows until its a full blown problem just like this situation. Had they attacked it head on from the start it never would have had a chance to get going. Earlier this year the same thing happened with the stimulus bill fight. Instead of hitting back on lies about provisions in the bill, Democrats tried to act like they werent there, and now to this day you have people believing there was a train from LA to the Bunny Ranch in the bill as well as money for mouses.
That then candidate Obama put up his “Fight The Smears” website last year I thought was a stroke of genius truly. You had one place where people could go whenever they heard a rumor and get it debunked for them. You can’t just let smears like this one linger or else the majority of elderly people in this country will go around believing there are death panels.
This information, sadly, will not be used by NBC, ABC, CBS during their 6pm broadcasts — it will not be used by Fox News nor CNN, and MAYBE MSNBC. This blatantly double-faced perfect example shows the timidness of the news corporations
Tena – That was the best laugh I have had all day.
and sg- thanks for the link to Rick Larsen.
Grassley said he opposed it because it should be discussed “20 years” before its an issue. Yet he supported it for terminally ill patients and opposes extending end of life counseling to be available early. That’s not just hypocrisy. It’s blatant contradiction. Has any reporter had a chance to corner him on this. According to his office he’s never taken a public position on this before, despite the 2003 vote, despite being the ranking memeber when s464 was referred to Finance, despite similar measures passing the Iowa legislature previously… He should have to answer why he’s suddenly become so passionately opposed now that it’s in the context of a health reform debate. Is it because he wants America to fail?
lol tena truth hurt, is that why you want to shut me up?
it has much to do with it like I said this is typical political bs and I proved it by showing you what the dems did with their Iraq vote. They have no shame and will send your kids off to war then pull the support right out from under them for their political power needs!
no socks for me!
tena I doubt doubt that at all!
LOL you people are delusional!
Historically Democrats have tried to stay above the fray and not respond to that kind of thing.
@ SG, I think we agree quite a bit on this. One thing about Clinton was he always hit back. I think Obama does a good job of hitting back, but I also think no matter how much or hard Dems hit back, there will be no stopping people from believing we want to build a high speed train to the bunny ranch or that Obama wants to have death panels. Hit back by all means but also move it to “basic sanity” as quickly as possible.
Alas, Republican politicians pay no price for lying. A basic principle of journalism, taught in introductory courses, is that is inappropriate to say that a Republican is lying. You can say it about Al Gore, especially when he isn’t lying, which is fair and balanced.
Tena, can you support that statement that the leaders of Tort Reform in the Republican Congress had all sued for damages at least once? I’d love a citation for that to fling in the face of a few of my FB “friends”.
This is what all americans need to keep clean and happy.
Magic Clean Bidet
http://www.amazon.com/shops/magic-clean-bidet
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This would make one great commercial,
“If this clause in the legislation is about death panels, interments camps or government bureaucrats pulling the plug on grandma then why would these republican congress men vote on a similar measure in 2003 (scroll list of names)? They are encouraged by the insurance industry and special interest to scare you away from reform while the insurance industry makes billions in profits and the executives make millions in bonuses. Getting you afraid of reform assures the status quo for years to come”
“Stand on the side of change, YES WE CAN reform health insurance industry. YES WE CAN put the power back in the hands of patients and doctors. YES WE CAN assure affordable coverage is available to all American no matter their pre existing condition or status in society. Call your elected Representative and tell them YES WE CAN”.
Everyone who talks about the euthanasia & death counselors clearly has no idea about the concept of “death with dignity”. I’ve been an ICU nurse for 30+ years. I’ve been the death counselor simply by asking patients, usually elderly, who have END-STAGE disease (heart, lung, kidney, blood, liver)if they want their death prolonged. Believe me, your granny does not want to spend her last days with a tube the size of a garden hose down her throat, a machine breathing for her, hands tied down & drugged unconscious.
This issue is nothing more than encouraging everyone to have in writing Advanced Directives. It’s been law in Maryland for years that every time anyone, any age is admitted to a hospital, they MUST be asked if they have Advanced Directives. If they do not, the staff MUST give them information so they can make informed decisions. We haven’t pull the plug on granny because she’s old & sick.
People would rather rant & rave then listen to the facts.
Lynn,
I have been surprised the Doctors haven’t spoken up in support since they are often forced to deal with the confused loved ones. My father died of a brain tumor and after his first surgery he sat us all down and told us adamantly he never wanted to go through that again. We stood by our mother when she told the doctors no more surgery because all knew exactly what Dad wanted.
Hey Chris,
That movie is called Boogie Man and I just requested my local library buy a copy. You can do it online, and give your library this link and they can buy it for all voters to learn from!
http://www.BoogieManFilm.com/educational/
It’s won a bunch of awards, too…
<>
the operative word if “virtually” and if they did vote they will be unemployed just like the Dems in 2010 – if they last that long – shhh do you hear the resignations coming?
So the repubs are saying that the previous bills, proclamations, etc were different because they didn’t include paying for the counseling? did they actually believe doctors were not going to figure out some way to charge for this?