Lie of the Year: Politifact.com

Discussion in 'Politics' started by olias, Dec 17, 2010.

  1. olias

    olias

    PolitiFact.com is a project that is operated by the St. Petersburg Times, a project in which its reporters and editors "fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups. . . ."[1]

    They publish original statements and their evaluations on the PolitiFact.com website, and assign each a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The site also includes an "Obameter", tracking President Barack Obama's performance with regard to his campaign promises.

    PolitiFact.com was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2009 for "its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters."[2]

    Today, Politifact announced the winner of its annual Lie of the Year award. Considering the source of the lies in the race - members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups - the competition was stiff.

    WINNER: PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: 'A government takeover of health care'

    By Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan
    Published on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 11:30 p.m.
    Related rulings:
    False
    The Democrats' health care reform law is a "government takeover of health care."

    Robert Hurt, Monday, December 13th, 2010.

    Ruling: False | Details
    Pants on Fire!
    Says "Tom Barrett supports a government takeover of our health care"

    Rebecca Kleefisch, Wednesday, October 13th, 2010.

    Ruling: Pants on Fire! | Details
    Pants on Fire!
    The Democratic health care plan is a "government takeover of nearly 20 percent of our economy."

    Republican Party of Florida, Friday, March 19th, 2010.

    Ruling: Pants on Fire! | Details
    Pants on Fire!
    The Democratic health care plan is a "government takeover of our health programs."

    C.W. Bill Young, Saturday, February 20th, 2010.

    Ruling: Pants on Fire! | Details
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    The claim that the Democratic health care law is a "government takeover of health care" is our 2010 Lie of the Year.

    In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system. Frank Luntz, a consultant famous for his phraseology, urged GOP leaders to call it a "government takeover."

    "Takeovers are like coups," Luntz wrote in a 28-page memo. "They both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom."

    The line stuck. By the time the health care bill was headed toward passage in early 2010, Obama and congressional Democrats had sanded down their program, dropping the "public option" concept that was derided as too much government intrusion. The law passed in March, with new regulations, but no government-run plan.

    But as Republicans smelled serious opportunity in the midterm elections, they didn't let facts get in the way of a great punchline. And few in the press challenged their frequent assertion that under Obama, the government was going to take over the health care industry.

    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.' "

    full story: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/
     
  2. Mercor

    Mercor

    The list of companies, insurers and unions winning exemptions from the new health-reform legislation has grown to 222, doubling since early November and up from just 30 in the month of October.

    Companies and unions that provide health coverage for more than 1.5 million people now don’t have to abide by health-reform changes for one year beginning January 1. That includes 34 unions with more than 140,000 members.
    _________________

    It seems like if Government is not controlling heath care how are they exempting unions and big business from health care?
     
  3. The Lie of the Year is Politifact's "Lie of the Year" award.
     
  4. olias

    olias

    I guess I could have typed a better header 'Lie of the Year: from Politifacts.com' oh well; too late to alter
     
  5. I thought it would have Sarah's Palins death panels
     
  6. Maybe those are true.
     
  7. Eight

    Eight

    Doctors in the UK admitted that they routinely make decisions to stop treatments for people and let them die. It's based on economics but if the government controlled health care in it's entirety decisions could be based on your political affiliations!!

    Giving somebody power over you is about as stupid of a thing as you can do...
     
  8. Eight

    Eight

    The biggest ongoing lie that I know of is "we're from the Government and we are here to help you".. that can't be true even though we have the best politicians that money can buy!!
     
  9. Like the power of health insurance employees who decide who gets insurance and who cant do to pre existing conditions, what treatments you can and cannot get,what claims to pay and which to deny,whos policy to cancel if they want to etc ?
     
    #10     Dec 17, 2010