BREAKING: Republicans (and some Democrats) lied in order to block health care reform legislation! This comes as no surprise to anyone involved in the health care debate for the last two years. We have watched the lies unfold on the evening news, one more egregious than the next. For those who knew all along that grandma would not be going before a death panel and that 1,000 IRS agents would not be showing up at any American's house to collect, the Politifact Lie of the Year is an obvious choice.
Politifact is a valuable resource and should be expanded as much as possible. We are only beginning to dissect how much the media dropped the ball on their coverage of the health care debate. This "award" is a step in the right direction. Congratulations to the insurance industry, their lobbyists and the members of Congress who work for them! Click here for more information on Poltifact's Virginia's exposure of Congressman-Elect Robert Hurt's health care lies.
And click here for the full story on all the dirty details of the big, fat, health care lie!
"PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen "government takeover of health care" as the 2010 Lie of the Year. Uttered by dozens of politicians and pundits, it played an important role in shaping public opinion about the health care plan and was a significant factor in the Democrats' shellacking in the November elections.
Readers of PolitiFact, the St. Petersburg Times' independent fact-checking website, also chose it as the year's most significant falsehood by an overwhelming margin. (Their second-place choice was Rep. Michele Bachmann's claim that Obama was going to spend $200 million a day on a trip to India, a falsity that still sprouts.)
By selecting "government takeover' as Lie of the Year, PolitiFact is not making a judgment on whether the health care law is good policy.
The phrase is simply not true.
Said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: "The label 'government takeover" has no basis in reality, but instead reflects a political dynamic where conservatives label any increase in government authority in health care as a 'takeover.' "
