We’ve all heard of death bed conversions, but a leading liberal luminary has been caught on tape making a death panel confession. Sarah Palin got pilloried for suggesting that government-run healthcare would lead to “death panels.” But in a 2007 speech at the University of California at Berkeley, former Clinton Labor Secretary and Obama economics advisor Robert B. Reich essentially admitted that Palin was right.

Reich began his address by telling the audience that he was going to deliver a speech about healthcare as if he were an honest candidate who “did not care about becoming president.” Reich continued, “In other words, this is what the truth is…” Are you sitting down for this? Here’s an excerpt:

“…particularly you young healthy people…you’re going to have to pay more. …And by the way, … if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life… It’s too expensive…so we’re going to let you die.

“Also, I’m going to use the bargaining leverage of the federal government … to force drug companies and insurance companies and medical suppliers to reduce their costs. What that means, less innovation and that means less [sic] new products and less [sic] new drugs on the market which means you are probably not going to live much longer than your parents.”
So, let’s summarize the kind of healthcare program that Robert Reich wants: “you’re going to have to pay more,” “if you’re very old … we’re going to let you die” and “less innovation … means you are probably not going to live much longer.”

That’s pretty shocking stuff. The media just couldn’t believe it when Sarah Palin suggested that government-run, socialized healthcare would lead to “we’re going to let you die” death panels. But that’s exactly what Reich said, and you can listen to him say it here.

To the bean counting bureaucrats, your life is a burden, not a blessing. So Big Government is going to dictate what healthcare you can and cannot receive. Need critical surgery? Maybe not. Suffering from serious pain? Sorry. Need cancer treatment? Too bad. How could anyone possibly call that “reform”? Sadly, many politicians do.

Related posts:

1. Huge Scandal – Palin Cheats!
2. Take a Stand: Women ARE Strong & Smart Enough to Decide on Their Own
3. Is Obama His Own Worst Enemy?

Tags: bureaucrats, confession, conversions, death bed, excerpt, federal government, healthcare program, honest candidate, insurance companies, labor secretary, leverage, luminary, medical suppliers, new drugs, obama, robert b reich, robert reich, sarah palin, university of california at berkeley

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Gary Bauer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.