"Plain Blog" Gets Told-You-So Moment on Death Panels

Me, on August 14, after Senate Finance stripped end-of-life stuff out of their bill as a reaction to Palin and the town halls, and liberals reacted with cries of doom about the future of our Democracy if a few nuts could affect policy that easily:

[H]ere's what's going to happen. They're going to avoid taking votes on this thing while the crazy is going on. Then, later in the game, perhaps in conference, they'll stick it back in. They'll do it quietly, and they'll be prepared with a story about how the new language prevents the stuff that, of course, was never in the old language to begin with. Worst case: they leave the damn thing out of the bill, and then go back next year and either pass it as a stand-alone or stick it in some other bill.

And today's news, courtesy of Greg Sargent's excellent new "Morning Plum" feature:

The Death Panels live! House Dem leaders were not spooked by the death panel attacks. Medicare funding for end of life consultations is in the House health care bill.

And the underlying NYT story says that, in the House bill, these consultations are now...wait for it..."completely optional." As opposed to, I guess, "optional" in the original language. I probably should wait until the language at least survives the conference committee, but that's no fun; I'm calling this one a hit, right now.