Orszag Puts Forward Nazi T4 Proposal...Again

July 19, 2009 (LPAC)-Yesterday, White House budget director Peter Orszag proffered, in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an even tighter proposal for a panel of "experts" who would decide who lives and who dies. Under Orszag's newest proposal, an Independent Medicare Advisory Council (IMAC) "would have the authority to make recommendations to the President on annual Medicare payment rates as well as other reforms." The proposal is similar to Sen. Jay Rockefeller's proposal to make the Medicare Adisory Commission (MedPAC) an executive agency with authority to enforce its austerity recommendations. The recommendations of IMAC "would be prohibited from increasing the aggregate level for net Medicare expenditures." In a blog posting on the OMB website, Orszag wrote that the IMAC proposal "would make sure that there is someone always on the beat, looking for ways to bend that [cost] curve."

Naturally, Orszag wants Congress to have as little say in the process as possible. The recommendations of IMAC would go to the President for approval, and Congress would have 30 days to respond with a resolution of disapproval before they could take effect.

Either the Rockefeller proposal or the IMAC proposal would "represent a critical step forward in creating a health care system that rewards quality, restrains unnecessary costs and provides better care to more Americans," Orszag concluded, demanding that Congress approve one of them.