The parties are over, the feasts are finished, and everyone is sick of leftovers. So what better time could Barack Obama choose to quietly enact his new plan for leftover humans?
When Obamacare was passed, "end of life counseling" (which some people said would lead directly to "death panels") was removed from the already repugnant bill because it was considered politically touchy to pay doctors to tell old people not to seek medical treatment. And yet, if old people continue seeing the doctor just because they're dying, the economics of Obamacare don't work. So what's a president to do?
Simple - put his policy into effect via regulation instead of legislation, so it can't be voted down by the pesky representatives of the people.
Specifically, the president's new policy will give some of the few remaining Medicare funds (after Obamacare cut $500 billion from their coffers) to doctors in return for counseling older patients on end-of-life options "which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment."
Doctors will help senior citizens make these decisions during annual physicals by asking simple questions like: "Why do you want to be a burden to your family?" "Don't you think a blind orphan could use the corneas you're currently hogging?" and "Is life with an ingrown toenail really worth living?"
For the economics of Obamacare to work, old people have to die - it's that simple. And if that can be accomplished through regulation instead of law, and suggestion instead of edict, then true "death panels" for senior citizens won't be necessary.
Unless they refuse to go quietly.
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