The Death Panels Lady Again

.

Palin warns of new 'death panels'

Posted: December 10th, 2010 -- 10:47 AM ET

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Alexander Mooney
CNN Ticker Producer

"Death Panels" could be back, Sarah Palin says. But this time they are not the creation of the Obama administration. No, these are the handiwork of the bipartisan debt commission.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the former Alaska governor takes aim at several of the controversial commission's recommendations, saying the cuts it proposes "implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing."

Palin highlights the commission's proposal for an Independent Payments Advisory Board, a committee, she says, that will make "bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare."

The former Alaska governor also takes aim the commission for advocating cuts in defense, an area that Palin says should be off-limits.

"Among the few areas of spending it does single out for cuts is defense – the one area where we shouldn't be cutting corners at a time of war," she writes. "Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments."

Ultimately Palin, who appears to be beefing up both her economic and foreign policy credentials of late, hitches her wagon to GOP Congressman and budget guru Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

"In my view, a better plan is the Roadmap for America's Future produced by Rep. Paul Ryan. The Roadmap offers a reliable path to long-term solvency for our entitlement programs, and it does so by encouraging personal responsibility and independence."

Ryan, the Republicans go-to voice in the House on all things budget, would make for a key ally for Palin should she seek to further increase her own credibility on what is likely to be the No. 1 issue for Americans in the two years leading up to the 2012 presidential election.

"We must turn around before it's too late, and [Ryan's] roadmap offers a clear plan for doing so," Palin hales. "But it does more than just fend off disaster. CBO calculations show that the Roadmap would also help create a "much more favorable macroeconomic outlook" for the next half-century. The CBO estimates that under the Roadmap, by 2058 per-person GDP would be around 70 percent higher than the current trend."