By John Jalsevac
September 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today, former Alaska governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin again criticizes Obama's healthcare overhaul plan.
While acknowledging that heavy criticism was leveled against her now famous use of the term “death panels” to describe the end-of-life counseling originally proposed in the healthcare bill, Palin today continued to defend the phrase as appropriate.
“Is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by – dare I say it – death panels?” says Palin in today's column, after quoting President Obama discussing the need to keep healthcare costs down by providing end-of-life counseling.
“Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans,” she writes.
“Working through 'normal political channels,' they made themselves heard, and as a result Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context.”
“But the fact remains,” she continues, “that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration.”
Palin originally created a firestorm of controversy over the end-of-life counseling provisions in the bill in early August, when, in a post on her wildly popular facebook page, she called the counseling committees “downright evil” and “death panels.”
While many liberal commentators blasted Palin's rhetoric as hyperbolic, many conservatives and even some within the liberal establishment acknowledged that she had succinctly summed up the serious concerns of many Americans – that government was intruding into the highly personal issue of healthcare.
Pro-abortion columnist Camille Paglia wrote at the time: “When I first saw that phrase (“death panels”), headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top!
“But on reflection, I realized that Palin's shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate's unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished.”
In today's WSJ column Palin also criticizes the notion, proposed by President Obama in a recent New York Times opinion piece, that Obamacare would somehow reduce healthcare costs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, writes Palin, “estimates that the current House proposal not only won't reduce the deficit but will actually increase it by $239 billion over 10 years. Only in Washington could a plan that adds hundreds of billions to the deficit be hailed as a cost-cutting measure.”
At the end of the day, explains Palin, her criticisms of Obamacare can be boiled down to the “commonsense” principle that more government isn't the answer to every problem.
“The answers offered by Democrats in Washington all rest on one principle: that increased government involvement can solve the problem. I fundamentally disagree,” she says.
“Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy. And common sense tells us to be skeptical when President Obama promises that the Democrats' proposals 'will provide more stability and security to every American.'”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Palin Firestorm Brings Fresh Scrutiny to ObamaCare “Death Panels”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081109.html