Liar’s Tango–Affordable Care Act Edition

When President Obama’s promise that “if you like your health insurance, you can keep it”  it not only earned him Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” but it sent the right wing into paroxysms of howling rage. The right wing politicians, publications, pundits and (especially) the bloggers were just beside themselves with outrage. Perhaps rightfully so.

It was a foolish promise to make, especially considering that Obama has absolutely no control over the insurance companies. I believe that what he meant at the time, is that if you had insurance coverage that you liked, it would be “grandfathered” in, provided the coverage or terms did not change. Of course, the private health insurance market is a year-to-year contract, and these plans change all the time, especially if you get sick. This was made worse by the insurance companies continuing to sell substandard plans (meaning that they did not meet the minimum requirements of the ACA) knowing full well that they would have to canceled as the ACA took effect.

Of course, none of this mattered in the political calculus. Obama gave his opponents an opening and they pounced.

But what was lost in the noise and outrage, are all the lies the right wing used in their attempt to destroy this law. Let’s review some of them, shall we?

Death Panels

This is an oldie but goodie. Although Sarah Palin did not invent the lie, she made it famous because of the size of her megaphone and it spread because many dimwitted and ill-informed Tea Partiers are not capable of actually reading the law or doing anything that would approach what a rational person would call “fact-checking.” But when it was fact checked by Politifact, it was pronounced Lie of the Year for 2009.

Yet, this lie will not die, much like the Birther nonsense kept alive by mouth breathers in the right wing blogosphere. Note the recent comments of Mark Haperin, who should (and I think does) know better.

Obamacare is the Largest Tax Increase in the History of the World

This falsehood first spewed forth from the deranged Rush Limbaugh and soon it was a common Republican talking point.

And another Pants On Fire rating from Politifact. The Politifact analysis shows several tax increases that were far larger than the ACA. But actual facts can be nettlesome things, especially when you are not interested in an honest policy debate. Why bother with facts when facts will not get he rubes riled?

Obamacare Code Requires Users Waive Rights to Privacy

This lie comes from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX, of course) that asserts that the HTML code behind the Healthcare.gov website tricks users into giving up privacy protection.

Rep. Barton only demonstrated that he knows nothing about HTML, although he seems to be the genius that found the great trap in the code. Hint to Rep. Barton—keep your day job, because you do not have a career in computer programming. Because this idiocy may have been a result of simple ignorance and not shameful manipulation, it does not get a Pants on Fire rating, just a False rating from Politifact.

No Doctors Who Went to American Medical Schools Will Accept Obamacare

This priceless piece of lunacy comes with some xenophobia. Of course this makes it perfect for the perpetrator of the lie, Ann Coulter. This is designed to stoke the fears of the racists and xenophobes that are, well, her base. Anyone who bought one of her endlessly repetitive books (basic theme in all of them—“How Liberals Are Ruining America”) will find this fascinating. But fascinating and true are wholly unrelated.

This gets—you guessed it—a Pants on Fire Rating from Politifact.

Shaun Hannity and the Tales of Obamacare Woe

Hannity trotted out four couples on his show to proclaim how their lives were ruined by Obamacare. Apparently, Hannity and his producers were either too stupid or too lazy to exercise the minimum level of journalistic integrity that one can find at almost any college newspaper before they broadcast this nonsense. But it is Hannity, and it is Fox, so who can claim to be surprised?

Unfortunately for Hannity, this provoked the curiosity of a real journalist who decided to look into it. When he looked into it, he found that the claims they made on the show did not hold up even under the most casual scrutiny. Did Hannity retract and apologize like a legitimate news organization? Oh, please. This is entertainment.

California Republicans and the Fake Obamacare Website

Poor California Republicans. As if to demonstrate their complete irrelevance in State politics, and in a State where the law is working pretty well, they launched a fake website that looked like the real thing but was filled with anti-Obamacare propaganda and was designed to discourage people from obtaining health insurance coverage.

Will they take down the baloney website? Of course not. Now that they have been caught, they claim they are only providing “information.” Everyone one in the State that have nerve synapsis that actually work, recognize this crap for what it is. Every time I think that Republicans have hit rock bottom, they prove me wrong.

There are hundreds of more examples (like the IRS is going to ask about your sex life, etc., etc., ad infinitum), but these are just some of my favorites. For Republicans to continue to excoriate Obama for the “keep your insurance” lie, they must own up to the lies they have been propagating since 2009.

But they will not. Because they are, in the marrow of their bones, hypocrites.

Update 12/13/13

The original post was published before the annual Politifact Lie of the year was announced. A link to the Politifact “award” has been added.

Update 1/2/14

The right wing lies just get weirder and weirder. As much as I would like to leave this subject alone for a while, this lie is just a special case in Right Wing Bizzao land. I have to include it in this post:

Obamacare Will Result in Beheadings.

Pants on Fire from Politifact, of course. I really san’t add to this, other than to observe that the stupid and Obama-haters are gullible. Obviously.