PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year: GOP’s “government takeover of health care” claim

PolitiFact has selected its “lie of the year,” and it’s a whopper. That’s right, “The decisive winner [in the poll of PolitiFact readers] was the same one PolitiFact editors and reporters selected for the Lie of the Year: the claim that the new health care law is a ‘government takeover.'” According to PolitiFact, this Frank Luntz special was “a brilliant and powerful attack line” which did a lot of damage, particularly since the corporate media completely failed to do their job in challenging it. Only one problem: “The phrase is simply not true…no basis in reality.”  Other than that, it’s brilliant! Heh.

Other “big lies” of the year, as voted by PolitiFact readers, include: 1) the insane claim by Michele Bachmann that “The president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day;” 2) the absurd claim by Republicans like Eric Can’tor that “The stimulus has not created one private sector job;” and 3) another crazy Republican claim, that “the stimulus has not created one private sector job.” And that’s not even counting the ongoing Big Lies about Barack Obama being a Muslim and/or not being an American citizen; Sarah Palin’s infamous (but completely fictional) “death panels;” all the lies about the conservative, free-market idea known as “cap and trade;” etc.

Here in Virginia, you can check outwhat’s true and what’s false at  Politifact Virginia. Particularly bad ones – “Pants on Fire” – include Speaker William Howell’s claim that Congress is “now about basically confiscating your private 401(k) or IRA plan and rolling it into Social Security” (WTF?!?); George Allen’s mistaken assertion that “President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi passed a “$1.2 trillion stimulus bill;” and Eric Can’tor’s math-challenged charge that “In the past two years, Democrats have ‘spent more money than this country has spent in the last 200 years combined.'” No, Eric, but perhaps it’s true that you’ve told more lies in the past two years than most people will tell in their entire lifetimes.