Republicans have announced that Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana — a cardiothoracic surgeon — will deliver the party’s rebuttal to Pres. Obama’s health care address to Congress tomorrow. A couple of things are very interesting about that choice.
First, Boustany was an original co-sponsor of a health care plan to allow Medicare to pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling. If that sounds familiar, it should: It’s the exact same plan that many Republicans pitched a fit over, calling it a plan to set up “death panels” that would kill grannies nationwide. Boustany, by the way, still supports the idea.
The second interesting thing is that House Minority Leader John “ManTan” Boehner, while introducing Boustany, condemned Democrats for refusing to work with the doctor/Congressman. Huh?! I guess Boehner meant that Democrats refused to work with Boustany except for adopting his original idea. Moreover, it was Republicans who jumped all over the end-of-life counseling, ending any progress on the issue Boustany considers so important.
Are these guys mixed up or what? They’re probably “what,” if “what” is defined as “almost too cynical to believe.”
This article appears in Sep 8-15, 2009.
This is true, Boustany did support “death panels” for Medicare recipients and was the co-sponsor of the bill. He called it good practice. It’s kind of a misnomer to call them death panels but still.
I dont know what this guy can rebut. If you support Medicare as all Republicrats do, you are supporting socialized medicine.
These republicans are a joke.
The end result will be more corporatism, higher prices and less competition courtesy of both major parties.