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

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Republican strategist, Frank Luntz, is credited with PolitiFact's 2010 lie of the year.

PolitiFact editors and reporters have chosen "government takeover of health care" as the 2010 Lie of the Year.
[...]
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.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/

This comes on the heels of PolitiFact's 2009 Lie of the Year winner - Sarah Palin's posting of 'Death Panels' on her Facebook page.

:lol:
 
Republican strategist, Frank Luntz, is credited with PolitiFact's 2010 lie of the year.



This comes on the heels of PolitiFact's 2009 Lie of the Year winner - Sarah Palin's posting of 'Death Panels' on her Facebook page.

:lol:

And both were valid choices. They are wild lies.
 
At first I thought that PolitiFact was a mostly non-biased site that maybe tilted a tiny bit towards the left, but it's harder to believe that every time I see them.

Okay, forget that they chose two right-wing "lies" in a row for two years (as is the 2nd place lie this year). Seriously? "Government take-over" is the biggest lie they could find? That's a huge stretch of the truth at worst, and a valid political position at best. Who's to judge what does, and doesn't, constitute a "takeover"? It's pretty clear that the law calls for a huge and unprecedented increase in the government's power when it comes to health care. More importantly though, who's to say what the actual effects of the bill are that aren't just written on paper? It could very well lead to what's basically a government takeover of the industry - Obama himself has all but admitted such. Hell, even Politifact labeled an entry using the exact same wording as merely "false", rather than "pants on fire"; to call it the "lie of the year" thus makes no sense at all.
 
At first I thought that PolitiFact was a mostly non-biased site that maybe tilted a tiny bit towards the left, but it's harder to believe that every time I see them.

Okay, forget that they chose two right-wing "lies" in a row for two years (as is the 2nd place lie this year). Seriously? "Government take-over" is the biggest lie they could find? That's a huge stretch of the truth at worst, and a valid political position at best. Who's to judge what does, and doesn't, constitute a "takeover"? It's pretty clear that the law calls for a huge and unprecedented increase in the government's power when it comes to health care. More importantly though, who's to say what the actual effects of the bill are that aren't just written on paper? It could very well lead to what's basically a government takeover of the industry - Obama himself has all but admitted such. Hell, even Politifact labeled an entry using the exact same wording as merely "false", rather than "pants on fire"; to call it the "lie of the year" thus makes no sense at all.

So, they should ignroe the major lies because they are right wing? Wouldn't that be showing bias?
 
I vote for:

"They will see that if Americans like their doctor, they will keep their doctor. If people like their plan, they will keep their plan. No one will be able to take that away from you"
 
At first I thought that PolitiFact was a mostly non-biased site that maybe tilted a tiny bit towards the left, but it's harder to believe that every time I see them.

Okay, forget that they chose two right-wing "lies" in a row for two years (as is the 2nd place lie this year). Seriously? "Government take-over" is the biggest lie they could find? That's a huge stretch of the truth at worst, and a valid political position at best. Who's to judge what does, and doesn't, constitute a "takeover"? It's pretty clear that the law calls for a huge and unprecedented increase in the government's power when it comes to health care. More importantly though, who's to say what the actual effects of the bill are that aren't just written on paper? It could very well lead to what's basically a government takeover of the industry - Obama himself has all but admitted such. Hell, even Politifact labeled an entry using the exact same wording as merely "false", rather than "pants on fire"; to call it the "lie of the year" thus makes no sense at all.

What would you consider to be a bigger lie?
 
I vote for:

"They will see that if Americans like their doctor, they will keep their doctor. If people like their plan, they will keep their plan. No one will be able to take that away from you"

In context, as the government is not taking them away, and insurance companis have been doing so for years, I wouldn't rate that near as abig a lie.
 
Probably the biggest lie was the reasons for going into Iraq, call me crazy :coffeepap:

That didn't happen in 2009 and 2010 though. I was thinking within those two years.
 
That didn't happen in 2009 and 2010 though. I was thinking within those two years.

Oh... well.

Yeah I'd say the whole Death Panel thing was pretty below the belt bad lie.

The Shirley Sherrod thing was pretty bad too... we all seem to have forgotten about that. But I guess that's not so much a lie, as it was a deliberately misinforming people by editing ;)
 
Oh... well.

Yeah I'd say the whole Death Panel thing was pretty below the belt bad lie.

The Shirley Sherrod thing was pretty bad too... we all seem to have forgotten about that. But I guess that's not so much a lie, as it was a deliberately misinforming people by editing ;)

I guess one major lie that most conservatives would agree with was that one chick being a witch.
 
In context, as the government is not taking them away, and insurance companis have been doing so for years, I wouldn't rate that near as abig a lie.
Never mind that the government plan has been so destructive that Obama has been forced grant hundreds of waivers from his cumbersome mandates to keep hundreds of thousands of workers from losing their coverage. :coffeepap

No, let's concern ourselves with what some random pundit had to say Lubbitz? Lutz? Luntz? I guess his name doesn't really matter. :coffeepap
 
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the bigger lie is the one many liberals believe... that Palin will win the GOP nomination.

Can't speak for liberals, whoever they are, but I don't believe she willwin the GOP nomination. But I suspect many democrats hope she does. :coffeepap
 
Never mind that the government plan has been so destructive that Obama has been forced grant hundreds of waivers from his cumbersome mandates to keep hundreds of thousands of workers from losing their coverage. :coffeepap

No, let's concern ourselves with what some random pundit had to say Lubbitz? Lutz? Luntz? I guess his name doesn't really matter. :coffeepap

Whch means nothing, regardless of whether you're right or wrong, to the lies. The lies are still lies. And the two winning lies are huge whoppers.
 
So, they should ignroe the major lies because they are right wing? Wouldn't that be showing bias?

Um, that's sort of the exact opposite of what I said.

I'll be fair though, apparently it was voted by the readers, so it has more to do with the bias of people who go there than the bias of the website itself. Still, looking at a list of the "Lies of the Year", every single one of the top 4 are by Republicans, as are the majority of them in general; and beyond that, as I just explained, #1 shouldn't even qualify since it's not so much a complete blatant lie as it is a stretch of the truth, or simply a belief/prediction of what's to come.

What would you consider to be a bigger lie?

Something that is actually, undeniably an outright lie. Like Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad, though preferably one that had a bigger impact.

With the one that they chose, the reasons they gave in the article for it being a "lie" was that it simply doesn't match with the words in the bill. That's also what they said about Sarah Palin's "death panels" comment, which made #1 last year. Both times, though, they looked at it the wrong way, since the two statements aren't about what's literally set forth in the bill, but about what will actually happen once the law takes effect.
 
Um, that's sort of the exact opposite of what I said.

Didn't seem that way to me.

I'll be fair though, apparently it was voted by the readers, so it has more to do with the bias of people who go there than the bias of the website itself. Still, looking at a list of the "Lies of the Year", every single one of the top 4 are by Republicans, as are the majority of them in general; and beyond that, as I just explained, #1 shouldn't even qualify since it's not so much a complete blatant lie as it is a stretch of the truth, or simply a belief/prediction of what's to come.

republicans have been busy this year, telling some real whoppers. I don't suggest that only republcans lie, as democrats do as well, but there is no doubt republicans worked hard to tell some wild and over the tops lies.


One thing from your answer to MEgaprogman, those things weren't likely to happen either. Saying they were likley to happen is just as large a lie.
 
In context, as the government is not taking them away, and insurance companis have been doing so for years, I wouldn't rate that near as abig a lie.

Of course you wouldn't but the fact remains you cannot keep a plan that no longer exists and the Obama administration lied by never addressing that issue. I like the Obama Administration lie that passing the stimulus would keep unemployment capped at 8%? Or the lie that the stimulus plan saved or created millions of jobs when the reality is there is no evidence of that. Or the Obama lie that "I inherited a 1.3 trillion deficit from Bush. Deficits are yearly and fiscal year 2009 ended in Sept. 2009 so Obama had 9 months of that fiscal year and lied about what he inherited.

I agree, Polifact is nothing more than a leftwing mouthpiece embraced by other leftwingers.
 
Of course you wouldn't but the fact remains you cannot keep a plan that no longer exists and the Obama administration lied by never addressing that issue. I like the Obama Administration lie that passing the stimulus would keep unemployment capped at 8%? Or the lie that the stimulus plan saved or created millions of jobs when the reality is there is no evidence of that. Or the Obama lie that "I inherited a 1.3 trillion deficit from Bush. Deficits are yearly and fiscal year 2009 ended in Sept. 2009 so Obama had 9 months of that fiscal year and lied about what he inherited.

I agree, Polifact is nothing more than a leftwing mouthpiece embraced by other leftwingers.

Reality has a liberal bias. :coffeepap
 
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