From Michelle Malkin:

There was probably a five-hour meeting at the White House on how to spin this, which culminated in somebody throwing his hands in the air and saying “Let’s just do what we always do and blame Bush — everybody okay with that? Good.”

From The Hill:

The Obama administration is trying to quiet talk about so-called “death panels” after The New York Times reported Sunday that a new Medicare regulation includes incentives for end-of-life-care planning.

The Medicare policy will pay doctors for holding end-of-life-care discussions with patients, according to the Times. A similar provision was dropped from the new healthcare reform law after Republicans accused the administration of withholding care from the sick, elderly and disabled.

However, an administration spokesman said the regulation, which is less specific than the reform law’s draft language, is actually a continuation of a policy enacted under former President George W. Bush.

“The only thing new here is a regulation allowing the discussions … to happen in the context of the new annual wellness visit created by [healthcare reform],” Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin told The Wall Street Journal.

So if you have a problem with it, Sarah, call Dubya instead of the White House.

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