Politifact Announces 2010 Lie Of The Year

And the winner is: the right-wing meme that President Obama’s health care plan is “a government takeover of health care.”

“Takeovers are like coups,” Republican pollster Frank Luntz wrote in a widely distributed 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.

Readers of Politifact, which is run by the St. Petersburg Times, chose this as the lie of the year for 2010. Coming in second was Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s claim that President Obama’s trip to India would cost taxpayers $200 million a day.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.