Sen. Chuck Grassley didn’t kill the possibility of end-of-life provisions being included in health reform legislation because he doesn’t have that kind of authority, former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean said Thursday.

During an interview on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Dean said Grassley’s statements that government-run health care will result in so-called “death panels” is nothing but a short-term political tactic aimed at killing reform legislation and embarrassing the president.

“Chuck Grassley is probably not going to have a vote that matters at the end of this because the Republicans aren’t going to play,” he said.

Grassley said in a statement Thursday that he and his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee have decided to kill a provision to require Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling sessions for anyone who would like it. Grassley said repeatedly on Wednesday that the provision could lead to government-mandated euthanasia for elderly Americans, an idea that has been thoroughly debunked by political analysts, policy experts and even several of Grassley’s fellow Republican senators.

Dean said regardless of what Iowa’s senior senator says, the provisions will be in the final bill.

“They’ll be in the bill,” he said. “This has nothing to do with ‘death panels’ or any of that stuff they’re just making that up. I think at the end of the day you’re going to have a decent bill, and that is part of it.”

No one besides “the most faithful of the far right” believe Grassley is being honest in his criticism, Dean said, which will hurt the long-term prospects of the Republican Party.

“This is not going to work,” he said. “We’re going to have to pass this thing with the big majority the American people gave us, and this vocal minority is going to have to accustom itself to the changes. And they will, because an awful lot of them are already on a government-run health care. It’s called Medicare and they like it.”

Here is the interview:

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