Jim Towey, who once authored a commentary entitled “Why I’ll Miss President Bush,” writes in the WSJ that, under President Obama, the Department of Veterans Affairs has started advocating again an end-of-life planning document called “Your Life, Your Choices” which, to cut costs, tries to convince veterans that they don’t want to live anymore. Which doesn’t sound ridiculous on its face, at least not anymore so than ‘Death Panels.’

Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives from 2002-2006, tells us that the VA suspended the use of the “Death Book” under the watchful eye of President Bush, Mighty Protector of Life. According to a press release distributed yesterday by Aging with Dignity, a non-profit founded by Towey, “Your Life, Your Choices” was reviewed by a panel in December 2007 and subsequently removed from circulation, meaning that the document was in use for around seven years of Bush’s presidency.

Why didn’t Towey knock Bush for not acting sooner? And why didn’t Towey emit any similar public outcry when it was revealed that the VA had been using veterans as “guinea pigs” under Bush, paying them bottom-barrel rates to test dangerous drugs without warning them of certain known side effects like suicide? Why speak out about how we treat our veterans now now? I suspect it’s because a Democrat is President, but perhaps I’m being too cynical.