Welcome to the Era of Obama. You now have a duty to die.

I'm not saying that someday you will die (that's a given).

And I'm not saying that you should be given the "right to die" - - the freedom to take your own life, or to direct your Doctor to put you out of your misery - - that's something entirely different.

I'm saying that someday, if current trends continue, your United States Government will determine that you have a “duty,” an obligation, to die.

It’s bad enough that hundreds of congressional members voted to spend nearly one trillion of our dollars, without even reading the so-called “economic stimulus bill” and without knowing fully what our money is being spent on. It’s even more horrific to know that more of our tax dollars are being allocated to the Office Of Health Information and Technology, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, and that the bill also provides for the beginnings of a nationwide “health records database” that will track the healthcare of every person in the country.

As recently as last Monday, President Obama was praising the nationalization of health records, and the “conversion” of health records to electronic formats, noting that managing electronic data is less costly than managing hardcopy documents. But unfortunately, the creation of a nationalized health records database also creates another means of “cost cutting” - - namely, the denial of medical treatments to severely ill and elderly patients.

Language in the health care sections of the “stimulus bill” stipulates that the Department of H.H.S. will provide “appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care,” and also allows for “penalties” to be assessed to physicians who “spend too much” on individual patients. Essentially, we now have the beginnings of a governmental agency that eventually will, by force of law, determine which persons will be eligible for health care, and what treatment they will receive.

As noted in a recent Bloomberg news article, the way in which the Office Of Health Information and Technology is being expanded emulates the plans put forth in “Critical: What We Can Do About The Health Care Crisis,” a book authored by former Senator (and would-be HHS Secretary) Tom Daschle. In the book, Daschle praises the Western European nations for, among other things, the ways in which they have “nationalized” health care, and have ‘contained” health care costs. Continued...