This is another good article from FactCheck.org that traces the origins of the “death squad” term and how it has been argued between Obama and Palin.
Like many disagreements in the digital age, it all started with a post on Facebook. Last Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a note to her Facebook page and introduced a new term to the health care debate:
Palin, Aug. 7: The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care.
Unsurprisingly, the phrase “death panel” does not appear in the health care bill that passed House committees last month. And Palin’s post did not make entirely clear what she might interpret as a “death panel.” Nonetheless, the phrase stuck…
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via Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels | FactCheck.org.
It’s amazing how blatant falsehoods are defining the terms of the debate over one of the most important issues of our time. And virtually no one is talking substantively about the issues. The arguments are partisan, ad hominem, purely rhetorical, and completely devoid of substance. Check everything you hear on this issue before you decide on anything.
There are falsehoods and stretches of the truth on both sides, by the way. Check out this excellent article, “Seven Falsehoods About Health Care.” But it has to be said, that it is the opposition to health care that is making the more outrageous claims, tossing around words like “death panels” and “socialism.”