From a letter yesterday by Boadie Dunlop, MD, to the New York Times:

President Obama writes, ‘I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health care decisions but you and your doctor.’ If he truly believes this statement, then why has he also stated: ‘Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller,’ and that physicians do unnecessary tonsillectomies because it makes them more money?

What?

This is a perfect example of how rational people (I’m assuming here) are serving up quotes from politicians out of their proper context and making arguments against them—straw man arguments. Clearly, Obama is not, according to this isolated statement, making treatment decisions for surgical candidates.

(Then, as a matter of course, he throws in the inevitable accusation of lies for good measure.

It is very difficult to believe that the president is being fully open and honest about his goals in the reform of health care delivery.

For the record, Dr. Dunlop is a psychiatrist and an expert on anxiety disorders.)