The Obama Timeline: Part II

The Obama administration considers reviving the military commissions for prosecuting terrorist detainees at Guantanamo. Although Obama criticized former President Bush for the practice, he is learning that things are not always as simple as they seem. Off the record, one official remarks, “The more they look at it, the more commissions don’t look as bad as they did on January 20 (inauguration day).” [2710]

Obama tells the New York Times “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here. (For them) I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels.” Obama is here discussing rationing of health care, specifically for the elderly. His inclusion of ethicists means that decisions will have to be made with regard to “pulling the plug” on the gravely ill, in order to save the expense of caring for them to make more money available for his national health care plan. Congressman Tom Shadegg (R-AZ) says, “It certainly raises the specter of people being given up on.” Obama’s Health Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research would “.…determine those items, procedures and interventions that are found to be less effective, and in some cases more expensive, (and they) will no longer be prescribed.” Shadegg adds, “In the context of the stimulus bill and health care reform… this kind of cost-effectiveness research would be used to have the government say what drugs can and cannot be used and what procedures can or cannot be used.” [2709]