Obama is uniquely ill-suited to defend the "Social Compact."

With Obama pretending to be the defender of the status quo when it comes to social programs like Medicare, let’s keep in mind that he promised to substantially transform America.

James Taranto in the WSJ:

"We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Sen. Obama [said that], in 2008. That makes us highly skeptical of his ability to present himself as a defender of the status quo or "the social compact." He and the Democrats who controlled Congress in 2009-10 egregiously violated that compact when they defied the voters to enact ObamaCare.

Now he's accusing the Republicans of ending Medicare as we know it. But Taranto notes that ObamaCare already does that:

ObamaCare not only will force people to buy insurance and to subsidize the insurance of others, it ends "Medicare as we know it." In his speech last week, Obama promised: "We will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services that seniors need." He was referring to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, the ObamaCare creation colloquially known as death panels.

The spending frenzy of Obama's first few months in office brought about a mass movement for smaller government, leading to last year's Republican victories. Now, his push for socialized medicine has made the desocialization of Medicare likelier, even if it is not yet likely. Obama may end up "fundamentally transforming the United States of America" in ways quite different from what he intended.

That panel of experts will decide that at some point you should be given a pain pill or a shot and left to die. We all die, and individuals or families face end-of-life decisions. But to have the plug pulled by a government panel who doesn’t know you or care about you but only about the cost of keeping you alive is repugnant. That’s why Sarah Palin was brilliant, and right, to call them “Death Panels.” That’s their job no matter how you try to disguise their function.