Mitt Romney: Public Option is "Absolute Death"

The GOP has changed its message. No longer do they talk about "death panels," since the end-of-life counseling provisions have been removed. Now, they are using the term "absolute death."

Mitt Romney on Sean Hannity's Fox News show last night, said the following:

ROMNEY: The right way to have proceeded was to let each state create their own plan, to learn from the laboratories that the states were meant to be, and then adopted the very best in the federal system. But that hasn’t been done. And as a result, you’re seeing Democrats fighting Democrats. And the idea that we’d have — the government get into a — if you will, the public or government option is absolute death, I think, across this country.

Of course, the only ones facing death from a public option would be the insurance companies. And really, do we need them? Countries like Canada, the U.K. and more do just fine without them. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without some sort of universal health care. Since people in those aforementioned countries have longer lifespans than us, there's no "absolute death" involved.

Watch the video:

Damage Done, Grassley Recants on Death Panels

They know the damage has been done, that the talk about so-called non-existent death panels has impacted health care reform, so now the GOP is saying "Mea Culpa." Such is the case of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) who championed the idea less than two weeks ago.

On August 12th, Grassley told a health care town hall in his home state of Iowa:

"There is some fear because in the House bill, there is counseling for end-of-life. And from that standpoint, you have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life. You ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills. But they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on grandma."

Meanwhile, on Face the Nation on Sunday, Grassley admitted there was no such thing as a "death panel."

He stammered his way through explaining why he said that, however.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Now, Democrats say there is nothing in this legislation that would pull the plug on grandma, or even require people to discuss it. Why did you say that, Senator Grassley?

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY: I said that because--two reasons. Number one, I was responding to a question at my town meetings. I let my constituents set the agenda. A person that asked me that question was reading from language that they got off of the internet. It scared my constituents. And, the lang-- the specific language I used was language that the President had used at Portsmouth, and I thought that it was-- if he used the language, then if I responded exactly the same way that I had an opposite concern about not using end-of-life counseling for saving money, then I-- I was answering--

BOB SCHIEFFER(overlapping): All right.

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY: --and relieving the fears that my constituents had--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Well, did you--

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY (overlapping): --and from-- from that standpoint, remember, you're talking about this issue being connected with a-- a government-run program, which a public option would take you with. You would-- you would get into the issue of saving money, and put these three things together and you're scaring a lot of people.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Well--

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY: And I know the Pel-- Pel-- Pelosi bill doesn't intend to do that, but that's where it leads people to.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, but that's-- that's what I was trying to get from you this morning. You're not saying that this legislation would pull the plug on grandma. You're just saying there are a lot of people out there who think that it would--

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY (overlapping): No, no.

BOB SCHIEFFER: --or do you want to say this morning that that is not true, that it won't do that?

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY: Well, it won't do that.

"It won't do that." End of story. But, as I said, the damage is done.

Jon Stewart Roasts "Death Panel" Idea Originator

Jon Stewart had "death panel" idea originator Betsy McCaughey on his show on Thursday. It should be noted that McCaughey never used the term "death panel" herself, or at least, did not coin that phrase (it came from Alaska, ahem), but she originated the idea that the health care reform bill promoted euthanasia.



McCaughey appeared on stage carrying a huge binder, which she stated held the first 1/2 of the health care reform bill. Interestingly, she admitted the provisions were all about "living wills" as opposed to "death panels."



S: It seems like this bill is allowing people more control over their lives and that your reading of it is hyperbolic and in some cases, dangerous.



M: This provision is so dangerous that the Senate finance committee has already ripped it out of its draft.



S: It's not because it's so dangerous; it's because people so lost their **** about it. The misinformation that was put out there ... look, we can argue about whether it's a slippery slope to certain things, but there is absolutely nothing in that reading that says this is a mandatory consultation, and that ...



She interrupted and said he was wrong, but when asked to provide proof, she could not.

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Intro - Pull the Plug
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Interestingly, in part 2, McCaughey seemed to concentrate on the word "adherence," but as Stewart noted, the wording said "adherence to orders for life-sustaining treatment." Hmmm. Life-sustaining. Where's the "death" part of the panels?

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Quite a bit of blathering on the part of McCaughey, but not much information. Stewart notes that Reagan said in 1961 that Medicare would be the death of seniors and that did not pass. He then asked if she really believed that fact. And she said yet.



McCaughey then tried to say that American health care was good. Stewart pointed out what I've said before: the U.S. is 50th in infant mortality and 46th in life expectancy. He didn't note what I have, that Cuba has the same life expectancy as us.



She said that (pulling the stats out of her *ss, I'm sure) that if you remove violent crime and auto accidents we're #1. So?



See the final part of the interview:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 2
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