Obama orders same-sex hospital visits

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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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Which of course is never abused.

Back some years ago, Dick Cheney promoted the concept of the Unitary Presidency. In essence, the President is granted great power to circumvent Congress.

I recall the dismay here when that happened. Now that Obama is embracing much the same attitude, it's seen as a plus.

Well, like I told the Reps, it's going to come around and bite people in the ass.

So Obama decides he can blackmail hospitals for a good thing. Are you prepared to have the same happen for a Palin's "greater good"?

I'm not.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Congress still has the authority to override.
And you didn't really address my point in context, it's using the exact same power both Bush and Clinton used, so I don't really see how it's a new power, or an expansion of the government. If one wants to address it via the tack you're taking, that's fine, but let's call a spade a spade, and say we don't like the way this spade is digging in our garden.
 

daishi5

Golden Member
Feb 17, 2005
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There is theory and practice. You see me saying something about this issue simply because it mentions a President using money to dictate something which is completely outside of the intent of Medicaid or Medicare. That's pretty clear from the article. Now because you weren't around when Bush was doing it too didn't mean I was silent. Far from it.

My contention is that Presidents are increasingly using powers that they passed on. If I meant that gays shouldn't have this right I would have said so. I think that a law should be passed specifically addressing this issue, and that the President ought to make sure that it was properly executed.

The problem is that the powers aren't being used to enforce specific laws.

Now maybe there is a law requiring this and Obama is using this as a means to enforce it. Is this the case?

You make the remark that Congress controls what the President does, but that's not true. The majority party of Congress does. In this case both are Democrats.

When it's the turn of the other party, then watch the recriminations.

Presidential involvement in dictating to private persons or organizations ought to be something that is used with restraint. Otherwise, the King makes the rules, and his Parliament gives him a pass.

Look at your history and tell me that's not so.


Read the white house memo, he is just enforcing existing laws. He also requested input about how to fix the LGBT issue, but does not seem to have done anything about it. It seems from what I see in the white house memo, and what I know of the laws that the issue has not been touched at all.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
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Read the white house memo, he is just enforcing existing laws. He also requested input about how to fix the LGBT issue, but does not seem to have done anything about it. It seems from what I see in the white house memo, and what I know of the laws that the issue has not been touched at all.


I find the article but no specific reference to a particular law. In my last response to woolfe, I asked about this. If I've missed a cited law (and I could have) then I have mis-characterized the situation.
 

daishi5

Golden Member
Feb 17, 2005
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I find the article but no specific reference to a particular law. In my last response to woolfe, I asked about this. If I've missed a cited law (and I could have) then I have mis-characterized the situation.

Did you read what Rangoric linked to? I also linked to the patient bill of rights earlier, and I think everything in the memo could easily be considered covered by the patient bill of rights. Basically all the memo covers is that patients have the right to designate people to make decisions for them, and that decision needs to be respected. The news articles I read had me on the completely wrong track, I think you might have got caught as well.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
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Actually, show us how it is not a piece of a current law.

Start with... Discrimination.

There show how this does not fit under discrimination, and remember, the law is blind to sex, so you can't use male or female in your answer.

The law is absolutely not blind to sex. It's perfectly okay for me to wander into the men's shower at the Y and take a shower; it is perfectly NOT okay for me to wander into the women's shower, no matter how much nicer I suspect it might be to do so.

Prof John is absolutely right about the lack of legal discrimination. I don't know about a new law, though. I think a good attorney (oxymoron?) could make just as good a case for discrimination under equal protection as for non-discrimination under existing law because I'm pretty sure there is no applicable law specifically exempting homosexuals, I'd also bet this comes up much more often than with heteros and homosexuals can point to a lack of the legal remedy straights have. Assuming both heterosexual and homosexual live-in relationships are legal, one group has a path to obtain this protection whereas the other does not.
 
Oct 30, 2004
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36580493/ns/us_news-washington_post

President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

This sort of controversy will distract the sheeple from focusing on issues that really affect them, such as economic policy and the loss of jobs to India, China, and Mexico, mass immigration, population explosion, and the displacement of American workers by foreigners on H-1B and L-1 visas.
 

Powermoloch

Lifer
Jul 5, 2005
10,084
4
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What's so bad about it. Anyone can get a power of attorney. It could be 2 best buddies or whomever. Primary caregiver helping an elder person with no known relatives.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
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Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/04/sonoma_county_ca_separates_elderly_gay_couple_and.php