Conservatives Claim that Obama Stimulus Bill Will Euthanize the Elderly

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Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 11:56 pm

The conservative American Life League has come up with a new argument to scare people away from the Obama economic stimulus package. They argue that making medical records electronic will open the door to euthanizing the elderly. In other words, support the stimulus and kill grandpa.

Judie Brown the president of the American Life League said in a statement, “Our elected representatives have fed on the fears of a nation gripped by economic panic to legislate state-enforced euthanasia. President Obama’s economic stimulus package puts a price tag on each of our heads. The package’s health care provisions threaten the elderly and open the door for euthanasia and nationalized health care.”
According to Brown, the man who wants to kill the elderly is Tom Daschle, “Patterned on a plan outlined by Sen. Tom Daschle in his book ‘Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis,’ the plan will have the greatest impact on seniors and places the country a step closer to mandated euthanasia of the elderly, infirm and those deemed undesirable. This is a disgusting direct attack on the worth and human dignity of all people, regardless of age. These provisions endanger the life of every single American.”

The conservative Canada Free Press jumped into the fray, “Obama’s team of despots has turned a Stimulus Bill into a Kill the Elderly bill. And the Democrats in the Senate, including Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Joe Lieberman, Arlen Specter and the two nitwits from Maine are too stupid or too reckless to put up a fuss. We, as citizens of the United States of America, can’t be. Our nation was founded on better morals than this. The Democrats have declared war on the elderly. And they will suffer the shame of history as a result.”

I have not read the final version of the bill yet, but I am almost 100% certain that it does not contain a provision for euthanization of the elderly. In fact, this bill would benefit the elderly who are highly susceptible as a group to medical errors caused by mistakes in their records. The person who will kill the elderly and centralize health care is the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. Conservatives are spreading the lie that this is the person who is going to centralize health care and concentrate funding on the well and able bodied.

In reality the national coordinator will be an IT person, responsible for maintaining the electronic medical records system. Here is how Obama described health IT, “(It) will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.”

Electronic medical records aren’t about government run health care or euthanizing the elderly. It is about building a better, more efficient system to save money and cut down on medical errors. These conservatives are shameful scare tactics. Does anyone really think that Democrats would vote for a bill that would euthanize the elderly? This may come as a surprise to some, but Democrats are people too. This attack is insane, completely baseless, and laughable. There is no other way to describe it.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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