Nat Hentoff, one of our most prolific writers exposes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who had been writing columns calling those (Sarah Palin, most prominently) who were talking about "death panels" in Obamacare, part of "the lunatic fringe."
Hentoff quotes Krugman from his appearance on ABC's This Week, on November 14th: "Some years down the pike," he said, "we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes." That would mean the U.S. Debt Reduction Commission "should have endorsed the panel that was part of the [Obama] health care reform."
When Krugman realized later what he had said on TV, he attempted to spin his remarks by writing on his Blog: "What I meant is that health care costs will have to be controlled, which will surely require having Medicare and Medicaid decide what they're willing to pay for — not really death panels, of course, but consideration of medical effectiveness and, at some point, how much we're willing to spend for extreme care."
Krugman did not further define what he meant by "extreme care."
You can read the full Hentoff piece on the website of the Cato Institute.
