Monthly Archives: February 2011

Death panels do exist, and the Republican-controlled legislature and governor’s office in Arizona has the votes to prove. With a 21–9 majority in the state senate and a 40–20 majority in the state house, they could even override Republican governor Jan Brewer, should she stray and veto a piece of not only Republican, but Tea-Party-Republican legislation.

These two legislative bodies and the governor have decided to hold 96 critically ill people (human bodies) hostage to a battle with Washington. They have voted to cut $1.4 million from this fiscal year’s transplant budget in an attempt to cut $561 million in Medicaid payments from its $1.2 billion budget deficit. This $561 million is part of a state-federal program that helps provide coverage for about 280,000 of the state’s poor. At least two of the transplant candidates have already died.

When asked about, Republican State Senator Frank Antenori was quoted as saying, “Government makes decisions that affect people’s lives all the time.” Including some that apparently will kill you.

Seems Sarah Palin was right: the government has created death panels. In this case it is a solidly Tea-Party-Republican-control state government of Arizona that has done so – at the expense of the poor, of course.

When Arizona considered passing a law requiring people to carry papers proving they were U.S. citizens should they be stopped by the police, the conservative mouth piece Glenn Beck was heard responding to critics by sarcastically saying, “Arizona sure has put the A-Z back in Nazi.”

Maybe he was more right than he realized.