CAUGHT ON TAPE: Paul Krugman – “death panels and sales taxes is how we do this”

 Krugman: "Death panels and sales taxes is how we do this": http://youtu.be/H9u2Lf0DdzA via @youtube

 

February 7, 2013 By Mike Ruffing 2 Comments

A comic once commented on a late night talk show that the overwhelming grief caused by the passing of his parents was not all that surprising. What was surprising was the realization that he was now in the proverbial green room waiting to go on next. For those of you 55 years of age or younger, guess what? Regardless of whether or not your parents are still alive, welcome to the green room. You are next.
The go-to economic darling of the media and the Obama Administration, Paul Krugman, admits that due to demographic and monetary realities, death-panels will become necessary.

Eventually we do have a problem. That the population is getting older, health care costs are rising… there is this question of how we’re going to pay for the programs. The year 2025, the year 2030, something is going to have to give… We’re going to need more revenue… Surely it will require some sort of middle class taxes as well.. We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society we want without some increase in taxes… on the middle class, maybe a value added tax… And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits. So the snarky version… which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble, is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.

Uncle Sam, meet Dr. Jack Kevorkian. The audience’s laughter brought about by Mr. Krugman’s admission is chilling. The necessary rationing of care required with any government takeover naturally brought the care and treatment of our parents to mind when Obamacare first raised its socialist head. Thankfully, it appears our parents might yet avoid the inevitable dark aspects of Obamacare. Heck, the almighty Krugman thinks we are at least 12 to 17 years away from death panels. So, the bad news is our parents may be deprived of new discoveries and treatments that could improve the quality and length of life due to a stifled free-market. However, we can take some solace in the fact that it is less likely that some progressive policy wonk will have absolute authority on when and how our parents pass. For now, or until Obama and the progressives are able to mandate it, death will still be under God’s providence for the next dozen years.
So that leaves those of us in the green room some time. Not much, mind you. But the fact the curtain is starting to be pulled back so soon into Obama’s second term provides opportunities for the low information voter to learn something. Much has been written about how to stop the leftist leviathan. Here is yet another lie that should be communicated and beat like a drum. Uncle Sam will have to decide when you die. It is not a Sarah Palin rant. It is not the rich playing by different rules. It is just a fact of life. If you have government run healthcare, you have to have rationing, which means Uncle Sam becomes Uncle Kevorkian-they decide when you die.
If Patrick Henry was alive today and with those of us in the green room, he might say, “Give me liberty, or give me Librium.”