Rafael Cruz: Sarah Palin was right about the tyrannical dictatorship of death panels

Conservative pastor Rafael Cruz warned Monday that "tyrannical dictatorship" was coming to the United States in 2017 in the form of "death panels."

"You know those death panels that Sarah Palin talked about?" he said at a Tea Party event in Fairfield, Texas. "Finally this administration admitted those death panels do exist. You know, in fact, they're called IPABs."

"But let me tell you something most people do not know: By February of 2017, IPAB will be totally independent of government," the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) continued. "No oversight whatsoever. Not under the control of the president or of Congress. It will become another tyrannical dictatorship with no control by anyone, and that will occur -- according to Obamacare -- it has a date set February of 2017. You better have gotten rid of Obamacare by then, because otherwise it's total control."

The IPAB, or Independent Payment Advisory Board, is a 15-member independent government agency tasked with finding and recommending ways to reduce Medicare spending. The recommendations made by the advisory board can be modified or rejected by Congress on a fast-track basis before they are implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services.

"It's forbidden from submitting 'any recommendation to ration health care,' as Section 3403 of the health care law states," PolitiFact explained in 2012. "It may not raise premiums for Medicare beneficiaries or increase deductibles, coinsurance or co-payments. The IPAB also cannot change who is eligible for Medicare, restrict benefits or make recommendations that would raise revenue."

"What it can do is reduce how much the government pays health care providers for services, reduce payments to hospitals with very high rates of re-admissions or recommend innovations that cut wasteful spending. Some argue that because the IPAB can reduce the money a doctor receives, this could lead to an indirect form of rationing."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below.