PolitiFact’s choice for Biggest Lie of 2011 is also the Biggest Surprise!
In 2009, PolitiFact selected Sarah Palin’s comment about “death panels” as the biggest lie.
- In 2010, they once again sprang to the defense of Obamacare, selecting a “government takeover of health care” as the year’s biggest lie.
So who could have ever guessed they’d choose “Republicans voted to end Medicare” for their Number One Lie of the Year 2011?!
From PolitiFact:
The Democratic attack about “ending Medicare” was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors’ worries about whether they could afford health care.
Occasionally, Democrats and liberal groups were careful to characterize the Republican plan accurately, but far more often, they demonized and distorted it with lies.
For example:
• They ignored the fact that the Ryan plan would not affect people currently in Medicare OR the people 55 to 65 who would join the program in the next 10 years.
• They used harsh terms such as “end” and “kill” when the program would still exist, although in a privatized system.
• They used inflammatory and inaccurate pictures and videos of elderly people who clearly were too old to be affected by the Ryan plan. E.g., one video showed an old lady in a wheelchair being pushed off a cliff. Another featured an elderly man who had to take a job as a stripper to pay his medical bills.
In a blog post, the DCCC stood by its claim, saying the ad accurately stated Ryan’s plan would “abolish” Medicare. But even the Washington Post (hardly a fan of Republicans) agreed they were lying.
Sadly for the future of Medicare and for the future of substantive debate in this nation, the Democratic lies worked. Polls showed voters were skeptical of the Ryan plan and want Medicare to remain largely the way it is now. It’s got virtually no chance of passing in the Senate or getting signed by Obama.
Whoopee for Democrats!
- They demagogued and lied when Republicans said Fannie and Freddie were headed for disaster and disaster struck.
- They demagogued and lied when Republicans tried to reform Social Security and they’re doing it again about Medicare.
The unavoidable fact is that the post-WWII baby boomer generation is retiring by the tens of thousands and there is simply no way the remaining taxpayers can afford to provide so much for so many.
Democrats routinely demonize Republicans and lie about their plans whenever Republicans try to be responsible adults and take mature steps to stave off disaster.
We saw how well that worked in 2008, when the problems with Fannie and Freddie that Republicans had warned of caused the housing bubble, collapse and subsequent recession EXACTLY AS REPUBLICANS SAID THEY WOULD!
What did Democrats do? THEY BLAMED REPUBLICANS!
Social Security AND Medicare are headed toward total collapse. Anybody with half a brain can see that. Democrats have always and almost certainly always will continue to refuse to deal with the hard choices necessary to retool these programs so they can survive.
If Democrats stay in control and leave things as they are, the programs will collapse, but it will somehow be made to seem as if it is the fault of evil Republicans.
If Republicans take control of the government and do the hard things necessary to save the programs in SOME form, Democrats will demonize them and lie about everything, just as they did in 2011 with the Ryan Plan.
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SOURCES:
http://patriotupdate.com/16956/what-was-the-biggest-political-lie-of-2011
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/dec/20/lie-year-democrats-claims-republicans-voted-end-me/
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