Obama on rationing health care … a double standard?

UPDATE BELOW: The LA Times reports on the ABC Obama health care special yesterday. Obama touched on the issue of medical rationing for the elderly.

In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care." 

He added:

"Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller." Has anyone asked Senator Ted Kennedy how he feels about that?

UPDATE: It gets even worse. Senator Kennedy has exempted himself and other members of Congress from major portions of the health plan he crafted.

From an article by John Fund in yesterday’s WSJ, he gives us the fine print.

There's a reason the Obama health care plan is being rushed through Congress this summer -- because the American people would likely never support it if given time to absorb and understand such fine print. If the union carve-out isn't sufficient to excite public anger, wait till you hear about the version of the Obama plan prepared by Senator Edward Kennedy, which would specifically exempt Members of Congress from many of its provisions. As the U.S. Office of Personnel Management notes, Members of Congress "enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country."

According to page 114 of the Kennedy bill, a similar array of choices would not be available to other Americans in the future. Instead, they would be shunted into health insurance plans under the straightjacket of whatever the government decides is a "basic" plan.