Paul Krugman, the liberal New York Times columnist and alleged economist revered by the statist left, has long mocked those who said Obamacare would lead to health care rationing for the elderly and "death panels."
Graph arrow downSo imagine our surprise to hear Krugman himself call for death panels -- by that very name. On national television, no less.
On ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," Sunday, November 14, Krugman said:
"Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It's going to be that we're actually going to take Medicare under control, and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now.
"The Obama healthcare plan passed by Congress in 2010 includes government-run healthcare committees with sweeping powers, including the power to engage in competitive pricing and cost analysis, a system Britain uses that has led to rationing of medical care for the elderly."
After the exchange Krugman, realizing the public outcry his remarks are going to create, tried to rationalize his comments away on his New York Times blog.
However, his blog follow-up basically makes the same argument, just minus the scary "death panel" language.
Excerpts:
"I said something deliberately provocative on This Week, so I think I'd better clarify what I meant...
"So, what I said is that the eventual resolution of the deficit problem both will and should rely on 'death panels and sales taxes'. What I meant is that ... health care costs will have to be controlled, which will surely require having Medicare and Medicaid decide what they're willing to pay for -- not really death panels, of course, but consideration of medical effectiveness and, at some point, how much we're willing to spend for extreme care..."
Hmmm. "Not really death panels, of course." Just... refusing to pay for life-or-death care for some elderly and disabled citizens.
Thanks for clearing that up, Prof. Krugman.
