The Obama Administration is trying on several fronts (FCC, EPA) to accomplish by bureaucratic executive fiat what Congress would not approve. And they are doing it during Christmas holidays, probably to prevent a bigger public--and Congressional--outcry. The latest example is the institution of end-of-life advice for senior citizens. Discovery Sr. Fellow, Wesley J. Smith, points out at National Review's "Corner" that having doctors seek directives of elderly patients on end-of-life or emergency care is innocuous on its own, but sets the stage for the kind of "death panels" and care rationing that Sarah Palin vividly described.
Meanwhile, while noting Smith's reaction, James Tarranto of the Wall Street Journal's best of the web (subscription required) describes the moves today as part of the stealth policy-making that the Obama Administration has come to favor--and that completely contradicts the legislative transparency that Obama promised. Remember?
"'My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government,'" the newly inaugurated President Obama declared in a memo to department and agency heads in January 2009. "'Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.'"
As Taranto goes on to explain, the actual way implementation of Obamacare is working out in practice is about as secretive as possible.
(Update: timely article on this subject by Thomas Sowell.)
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