Faced with the need to cut government budgets, Republicans reflexively start with programs for the poor, the ill, the elderly and children. In Arizona last year, the state’s Republican governor, Jan Brewer — best remembered for pushing the state’s “papers please” anti-immigrant law and then getting caught lying when she asserted that the Arizona deserts were littered with headless bodies — and the GOP state legislature chose to cut a $5 million state program that provided transplants for uninsured Arizonans.

These Republicans could have covered the shortfall by directing funding from the Stimulus for this life-saving program, but chose instead to spend over $1 million in Stim money to repair the roof of a sports stadium. What’s worse, had they applied the Stim money to save the transplant program for the uninsured, the state would have been eligible for an additional $15 million in matching funds from the federal government.

During the debate over health care reform, insurance company lackeys like Betsy McCaughey and Sarah Palin floated the lie that a beneficial aspect of the legislation — its coverage of the costs of living wills and end-of-life counseling — was something evil: a “death panel” of bureaucrats who would decide whether patients were too ill or elderly to receive certain procedures, even if the procedures might save the patients’ lives.

The GOP’s Fox channel promoted the death panel allegation so heavily that a poll during the debate found that about three-quarters of Fox viewers believed the lie to be true. Faced with the outrage ginned up by the Republicans’ pernicious lying, Democrats removed coverage of end-of-life counseling from the law.

While this represented only a small victory for the giant private health-care corporations, whose multi-billion dollar annual profits were left untouched, it was a big defeat for middle-class and poor Americans who will continue to have to pay out of pocket for counseling during what it arguably the most difficult time in anyone’s life.

But the McCaughey-Palin-Fox death claim was a lie — those death panels were not real. What the Republicans in Arizona have done is real — and it is eerily the same thing they falsely accused Democrats of doing: letting government bureaucrats choose whom should live or die. And, tellingly, the criteria of the GOP death panels is typically Republican: Income level. People in need of transplants who are ineligible to buy private insurance or who can’t afford it, will not be covered.

Because of the GOP death panel law, about 100 people in need of transplants are facing death today in Arizona. In the video above, Keith Olbermann interviewed two of them, both fathers of young children.

Rough transcript from MSNBC, with some corrections:

Good evening from New York. This is Friday, November 19th. 718 days until the 2012 presidential elections. Yes, Mrs. Palin, there is a government death panel. It is in Jan Brewer’s Arizona.

Government action which will actually condemn some low-income Americans to death was passed this March by Republican state legislature and signed into law by a Republican governor. It took effect the first of october. You’ll presently meet two men and their families who have been condemned to die by this de facto death panel.

First the background. Approximately 1 million, 300 thousand Arizona residents are covered by that state’s version of Medicaid, known as known as AHCCCS. [Pronounced “Access” – Editor] Faced with a massive deficit, Arizona lawmakers asked AHCCCS to identify possible spending cuts.

AHCCCS got advice on these cuts from two companies, one of them owned by the same subsidiary of United Health Care that provided insurance companies with data that helped push costs onto patients, and that was used by Republicans as a supposedly nonbiased source of information in the health-care debate.

The other company, run by a Republican donor, gave AHCCCS false information about transplants. specifically that bone marrow transplants never work, liver transplants rarely work. So the Republican-controlled legislature saved just under $5 million by no longer paying for them. No more transplants for pancreas, lungs, some heart transplants, livers for Hepatitis C, bone marrow.

It did not matter that Arizona would give up $15 million in matching federal funds by cutting that $5 million. It did not matter that the head of Arizona’s largest adult bone marrow transplant program could have told them his bone marrow patients have a 42 percent survival rate. It did not matter that a 2007 memo from AHCCCS itself warned that without the transplants, quote, “The number of hospitalizations and other expensive very interventions will increase, along with the potential fatality rate.”

An AHCCCS spokesperson explained that the cuts did not really affect that many people because even though 98 Arizona residents covered by AHCCCS need exactly these kinds of transplants, quote, “Only about 15 percent of individuals would be able to get a match.”

One of them, Mark Price, diagnosed with leukemia. He found a bone marrow match the same day AHCCCS ended coverage. An anonymous donor came forward instead, for him. But that was not an option for Francisco Felix. The 34-year-old father of four needs a liver transplant or he will die. Unlike bone marrow, which living donors can give, livers must be transplanted within 24 hours of the donor’s death. He has waited for a donor since April. This Monday a friend of the family died. She donated her liver to him. Francisco was prepped for a 10:00 a.m. surgery the next day. 10:00 a.m. came and went. He and his family failed to raise the money in time — $200,000. So they took the liver away and gave it to someone else. Doctors say he has no more than two years in which to find the money and another liver and the average wait time for livers is 756 days.

Two months ago, a transplant coordinator told 36-year-old Randy Shepherd who has cardio myopathy that he’s next on the list. The date came and went. Even if he gets a heart now, he still has to come up with about $1 million to pay for his transplant.

A Republican state legislator promises to revisit this issue when that legislature meets again — in January.

Arizona governor Brewer refuses to call special session. Quoting her,”We have a responsibility as policymakers to make hard decisions, and those decisions have to be made for the citizens of Arizona, tough decisions, not an easy job for the legislature or me.” Governor Brewer has, in fact, blamed Obama health care reform for this, even though her budget took effect before Obama health care reform did. And Republicans tried to pass the same budget cuts last clear, too. She’s refused to call that special session unless someone can suggest how to cover the program’s total $1 billion shortfall.

Arizona Democrats, meanwhile, have suggested she use federal Stimulus money to fill the transplant gap. Brewer has refused even though she was willing to use $1.7 million in Stimulus money just last year to repair the roof of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

As promised now, we’re joined by Francisco and his wife, Flora and their daughters, Carla and Jennifer and Jessica and Carmen. We’re also joined by Randy Shepherd, his wife, Tiffany, and their children, Nathan and Kelsey and Krista. I’ll say good evening to all of you at the same time. Krista, happy birthday. And thanks to everybody for all of your time tonight.

GUESTS: Thanks.

OLBERMANN: all right.

GUESTS: Thank you. Tt’s good to be on with you.

Thank you.

OLBERMANN: Thank you all. Flora, let me start with you.

FLORA FELIX: Hi.

OLBERMANN: I know your husband does not speak English. We’ll direct most of our questions to you. I’d like to start by asking you to thank him for being with us. And ask him how he’s feeling tonight.

FLORA: You want me to ask him?

OLBERMANN: Yes, please.

FLORA: [speaking spanish] He feels better than the last days. [speaking spanish] Last night he was given some medicine because of what was happening.

OLBERMANN: Tell us, Flora, what happened on Monday night and then tuesday morning at the hospital. Tell us what that was like.

FLORA: Okay. well, what happened Monday night, I got a phone call from my friend. I got a phone call from my friend. and suddenly my friend passed away. and he wants to donate the organs. And he called me and told me his liver matched my husband. We went to the hospital and we found out when I spoke with the liver coordinator, we found out that the liver matched. They were making a lot of phone calls. The time was very important. We didn’t have much time. They decided to send my husband to Good Samaritan and receive him over there. They completed a physical exam. Tuesday in the morning, the doctor came and told me, Flor, your husband will receive the result. Your husband is ready to go to surgery. But AHCCCS didn’t respond. We just had two hours to find any organization or to have cash, $200,000. So by that time, it was impossible to us.

OLBERMANN: Yes. all right. Flor, stand by for a moment. I want to talk to Randy Shepherd. first off, thanks for your time as well. give us the overview. how are you feeling tonight?

SHEPHERD: Thank you, Keith. I feel pretty good. I’m still at a somewhat high functioning level for somebody in my condition, I’m told. And I have my family with me. So things are pretty good. Thanks.

OLBERMANN: What would happen if you got a call tonight telling you that there was a heart available?

SHEPHERD: Well, because of the funding falling through, I’m not active on the list right now. I’m on the inactive part of the list until alternative funding financing is available.

OLBERMANN: Can you explain with this platform available to you, Randy, explain to Governor Brewer why it’s so important to fix this and not to wait till January when some of the legislators want to bring it up again some?

SHEPHERD: It would be great if that was the case. If somebody could sign something, do whatever so that the funding would be there for me to get my heart. if — as I understand it, the state’s out of money. I understand that. And I’m not looking for somebody to invent money for me or money where there’s not available. But I would love it see if some of the wasted money out there in government. You see it every day. I’d love to see some of that redirected into a program like this.

OLBERMANN: Do I have this right, Randy, that next year you qualify for federal assistance in this? Would that solve these financial problems?

SHEPHERD: Well, I’m currently on the long-term disability. Doctors have told me I’m unable to work in my plumbing business because of my condition. And after two years on the disability, I’ll be eligible for Medicaid which that comes in January. So from what I’ve been told, January I’ll qualify for that. That will cover approximately 80 percent of my medical bills which leaves about $100,000 to $120,000 that we’ll have to raise. And we’ve got a fund set up right now through the national — there’s a national organ transplant fund that we have set up in my name that people can make donations.

OLBERMANN: Do I also understand this correct, that you had to join this AHCCCS instead of get insurance elsewhere? Why would that have been the case?

SHEPHERD: Well, I’ve had — my heart issues have been ongoing since I was about 12. I had rheumatic fever when I was 12. Luckily I had a diligent, loving mother who persisted and got me diagnosed and taken care of in spite of numerous doctors who couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I had a relapse when I was 17. I had another case. And at that point I had two artificial valves placed in my heart. So having had open-heart surgery as a teenager, there just had no insurance companies that are willing to take on my case. you know, understandably so. I’m a high-expense person medically.

OLBERMANN: I understand that you understand, but I don’t think the rest of America understands any of this. We’re obviously limited in our time. before we go, I want to mention that the national transplant assistance fund, ntafund.org —

SHEPHERD: yes, that’s correct.

OLBERMANN: — is raising money for both of your online, donate to the Francisco Felix or Randy Shepherd fund or both of them. The address is ntafund.org. My thanks to all of you tonight. And obviously, we hope for the best for all of you. And we’ll keep you in our thoughts. Thank you.

GUESTS: thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: thank you.

GUESTS: thank you.

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