Ken Blackwell: Obama will be the hand that feeds you
By: Ken Blackwell
OpEd Contributor
September 14, 2009
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was ordered out of the room by leading conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, who is a medical doctor -- a rarity in the world of pundits.
Krauthammer said Palin's comments about "death panels" in Obamacare were not helpful in a serious debate on the government takeover of health care.
But then Dr. Krauthammer wrote that the result would only be a "gentle nudge" toward that hooded figure in the corner of the room, that grim fellow with the scythe.
Hmmm. Maybe we should invite Palin to come back in.
Krauthammer wrote before we saw the Department of Veterans Affairs dredge up a how-to book on end-of-life decision making for wounded vets. The book, "Your Life-Your Choices," had been deep-sixed by the Bush administration. It was reissued by the Obama administration. The book includes various "exercises" for vets that suggest more than a gentle nudge toward death. How about a sharp kick?
What will our veterans, wounded and quite possibly depressed, think when they are given a book that tells them about the possibilities of ending it all? And what kind of help is it to gently nudge them toward the Hemlock Society -- that practiced ender of all pain?
We need to focus more on what President Obama himself has said about ending lives. Now is when we really miss Tim Russert, who passed away suddenly in June 2008. In February of that year, Russert put an easy question to then-Sen. Obama during the Democrats' Cleveland debate. I remember it well.
RUSSERT: "Senator Obama, any statements or vote you'd like to take back?"
OBAMA: "Well, you know, when I first arrived in the Senate that first year, we had a situation surrounding Terri Schiavo. And I remember how we adjourned with a unanimous agreement that eventually allowed Congress to interject itself into that decision-making process of the families.
"It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped. And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better.
"And so that's an example I think of where inaction ..."
RUSSERT: "This is the young woman with the feeding tube ..."
OBAMA: "That's exactly right."
RUSSERT: "... and the family disagreed as to whether it should be removed or not."
OBAMA: "And I think that's an example of inaction, and sometimes that can be as costly as action."
Most of what Obama read about Terri Schiavo is not true. She was not dying. She was not comatose. She was not in a persistent vegetative state. She was severely brain-damaged.
She did require food and nutrition via intravenous tube. Her husband had, as they say, moved on. He argued with Terri's loving family. Mr. Schiavo wanted those tubes removed. Without food and water, Terri would die. So would we all.
Mr. Schiavo said Terri had told him she would "not want to live like that." Who would?
But the real question is: If you have to receive nutrition and hydration by tube, would you want someone to pull the tube?
As president, Obama has been knocking down the idea that he wants "to pull the plug" on your grandmother. Still, in the above quoted exchange with Russert, Obama said he regretted that he had not been more willing than 99 U.S. senators to hasten Terri Schiavo's death.
She should have been denied access to the federal courts, Obama said. She wasn't dying until they pulled her feeding tube. When she was dying, armed guards stationed at her bedside prevented family members from giving her cracked ice for her cracked and bleeding lips.
If "controlling costs" is the reason for the whole drive to nationalize health care, pulling feeding tubes from medically fragile people is an obvious "no-brainer." Under Obamacare, he or one of his minions will decide how much health care you get. When they decide you've had enough, you will be denied access to the courts. Obama's will be the hand that feeds you.
Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and a visiting professor of law at Liberty University School of Law.
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