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Fact-checking website PolitiFact is out with the latest edition of its "Lie of the Year." In 2013, the dubious prize went to President Obama for his widely derided claim that, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it."

Many people, of course, found that they could not keep their plans, as the higher standards set by Obamacare rendered them null and void. The administration and Congress quickly moved in with proposed fixes to the mushrooming political problem.

PolitiFact is often criticized for its fact-checking methodology, and some noted that it had rated previous statements by Obama along similar lines as "half true."

Ironically, all three runners-up slots in PolitiFact's roundup went to Republicans for their own statements on Obamacare.

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Originally posted by kpo:
Yeah, it seems fair enough. Even though what Obama said had a lot of truth in it (The vast majority of Americans will get to keep their plans).

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If you're president, and you bend the truth and wilfully deceive the public to help get some legislation passed - I think there should be political consequences.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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He said what he said, dozens of times over, and it was a lie.

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Actually, the lie was that he claimed he DIDN'T say what he said, but why split hairs ?

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Well, with a useless media that refused to do its job, there were consequences. He got re-elected.

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'If you like your plan you can keep it' is true for the vast majority of people though.

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I repeat - THERE WAS NO CAVEAT !

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Originally posted by kpo:
Yeah, it seems fair enough. Even though what Obama said had a lot of truth in it (The vast majority of Americans will get to keep their plans).

If you're president, and you bend the truth and wilfully deceive the public to help get some legislation passed - I think there should be political consequences.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So we can add Obama's lie to GWB's lies (about taxes, Iraq, and Medicare). Both very consequential, and both very costly to a lot of people.

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Obama deserves to squirm, he does. The part in the Bible about not being able to serve two masters? It applies to Obama.

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That fact that GWB was incredibly stupid and needed Cheney to tell him what to think was just a personal foible, just as Obama constantly talks with his nose up in the air is a personal foible.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So we can add Obama's lie to GWB's lies (about taxes, Iraq, and Medicare). Both very consequential, and both very costly to a lot of people.

Obama deserves to squirm, he does. The part in the Bible about not being able to serve two masters? It applies to Obama. He can't look after the public health and the insurance companies' bottom lines at the same time, just as GWB couldn't look after the wealthy's taxes and the nation's bottom line at the same time.

What you fail to realize is that people who are not authoritarians actually manage to parse and criticize policies, not personalities. That fact that GWB was incredibly stupid and needed Cheney to tell him what to think was just a personal foible, just as Obama constantly talks with his nose up in the air is a personal foible.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
WHOZIT, I only bring up Bush's foibles so that the NEXT TIME a GOP President is in office doing incredibly stupid things, you'll unstick your nose out of his (or her) butt-hole long enuf to actually criticize the GOP President for doing exactly what Obama was doing. 'Cause the last time around, when GWB was in office doing incredibly awful things, you were notably supportive of those awful policies. Now, suddenly, they're a problem??? Somehow, by sheer repetition, you MIGHT get the idea that gander sauce = goose sauce, and stop your endless moral relativism.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
I agree, Sig. What's amazing is that Obama's half-truth, which is what it was, gets "lie of the year", while all the incredible, blatant, flat-out lies the right has told about the ACA don't even get "honorable mention".

As to Bush, we all realize Rap will go right on saying "Bush never lied" until the cows come home, just as we realize it means nothing.

Iraq: "Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war", http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/

Iraq: "Bush Did Lie About Iraq", http://consortiumnews.com/2012/04/26/bush-did-lie-about-iraq/

Taxes: "Grover Norquist: George H.W. Bush Lied to the American People", http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/grover-norquist-george-h-
w-bush-lied-to-the-american-people/

Medicare Part D:

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The Bush White House lied to Congress about the cost of Medicare Part D. Within two months of signing the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) into law, President Bush quietly informed Congress that the true cost of the program would be $550 billion, not $395 billion, over the next decade. When Medicare actuary Richard Foster sought to present the true price tag to Congress in late 2003, then agency chief Thomas Scully threatened to fire him. By the time the program was launched in 2006, the estimated 10 year price tag for the Medicare prescription plan had increased to $720 billion.

As the New York Times reported later in 2004, the GAO ultimately concluded that the Bush administration "illegally withheld data from Congress on the cost of the new Medicare law." While Scully was later fined for other ethics violations, he was never held accountable for his role in the Medicare fraud. Today, Thomas Scully "now works for a law firm and a private investment firm, has registered as a lobbyist for Abbott Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Caremark Rx and other health care companies." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Scully]

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I could post articles from reputable sources all DAY, but it's not necessary, as we all know, so why bother further? It will never stop Rap from lying himself to insist "Bush never lied", as we also all know.

As to Obama, everything Sig said. "He can't look after the public health and the insurance companies' bottom lines at the same time", and he never tried. The minute it was obvious there wasn't enough support for single payer (probably even before), he caved to create something which cow towed to the insurance lobby.

At the same time, the FACT is that if insurance companies hadn't canceled policies, people COULD have kept them, which everyone keeps ignoring--the right's done a magnificent p.r. job on that one, as they have on everything else regarding the ACA. Those policies were grandfathered in, the government didn't force their cancellation, and it was pure profit motive that led the insurance companies to cancel them. Obama knew they would, so in that respect he said something he knew would not be true in the end. But it was the insurance companies who made it a "lie", period.

I could list the BLATANT Republican lies all day, but of course none of them will get attention. How about just a few which were repeated, over and over, for a start:

1) Death Panels; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/10/sarah-p
alin/sarah-palin-barack-obama-death-panel/

2) Obamacare is socialized health care http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/jul/02/rick-scott/ri
ck-scott-says-health-care-law-rations-care-syste/

3) Muslims are exempt from the health care law; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/may/30/chain-e
mail/dhimmitude-page-107-health-care-law-exempts-muslim/

4) The health care law is a "government takeover" of health care; http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2010/feb/24/cw-bill-young
/bill-young-claims-house-plan-was-government-takeov/

5) Obamacare is so bad, Obama gave Congress an exemption from it; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/aug/14/ted-cru
z/sen-ted-cruz-says-obama-just-granted-all-congress-/

6) Obamacare is . . . the largest tax increase in the history of the world; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jun/28/rush-li
mbaugh/health-care-law-not-largest-tax-increase-us-histor/

7) Obamacare will question your sex life; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/sep/19/betsy-m
ccaughey/betsy-mccaughey-says-obamacare-will-question-your-/

8) The IRS is going to be "in charge" of "a huge national database" on health care that will include Americans’ "personal, intimate, most close-to-the-vest-secrets"; http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/may/20/michele
-bachmann/michele-bachmann-decries-huge-national-database-ru/

We realize none of those count; blatant, over-the-top lies by Republicans mean nothing; a half truth by Obama gets lie of the year.

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Originally posted by kpo:
The fact that there was no 'caveat' is what makes the statement dishonest. But even without the caveat the statement is broadly true.

Related rulings:

Half True.



"If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance."

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Bush didn't do awful things

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During the awful Bush years unemployment 4% to 5%, the Bush years didn't suck.

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During the awful Bush years unemployment 4% to 5%, the Bush years didn't suck.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Bush didn't do awful things

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Well, I see you've still got your head stuck up the elephant's ass. What you're complaining about about Obama doing... BUSH did.

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During the awful Bush years unemployment 4% to 5%, the Bush years didn't suck.

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Yup. I like that selective rewrite of history. Everything was great, ON FIRE!! as rappy (you?) would say, until that fateful day DURING BUSH'S TERM when Shearson Lehman folded and the entire worldwide financial system threatened to fold with it. Oh, and those bank bailouts? ALSO begun on Bush's watch.

The facts just don't bear you out, son. And the fact that you can't see that points to serious.... deserving of medical study... flaw in your mentation.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

"the Bush years didn't suck"...until it all came due, so that by the end of his Presidency we were in the worst recession in history, and unemployment "rose again to 6.1% in August 2008 and up to 7.2% in December 2008". Bush left us in an enormous hole, and we're still crawling out...if we ever manage to do so completely.

As to all the PROVEN lies of George W. Bush, obviously Rap can go right on saying "the sky is green" all day, so why bother? Until he actually REFUTES the facts I've already offered, screw him.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

It all came due , thanks to the DEMOCRATS who pushed the housing bubble.

2nd worse, behind Carter's debacle.

Barry's "LIE" tops anything W said, and it's not even close.

But Barry knew full well, YEARS in advance, that what he was pitching was 100% full bullshit.

And he didn't care. All he needed to do was get elected, then the damage was done.

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For that, I say FUCK OBAMA.

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Originally posted by kpo:

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He said what he said, dozens of times over, and it was a lie.

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'If you like your plan you can keep it' is true for the vast majority of people though.

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Originally posted by kpo:
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He said what he said, dozens of times over, and it was a lie.

'If you like your plan you can keep it' is true for the vast majority of people though.


Is this really true?

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My brother keeps telling me that their family plan is going to skyrocket next year.

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Originally posted by kpo:
Is your brother in the individual market? If he gets it through his employer like most people then Obamacare won't affect him. Some in the individual market will be worse off, some will be better off (including some who've had their plans cancelled). Mostly the losers are rich people.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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This rating was in June 2012. Politifact rated the "You can keep your insurance" quotes as "Pants on Fire" after people actually started losing their insurance in Nov. 2013.

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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-i
f-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/

You could read the Politifact article, if you'd like.

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If by individual, you mean does he and his wife get insurance through her job? If yes, than yes.

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And it still burns you up that that statement [unemployment at 5% during Bush's term of office] is fact.

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It all came due , thanks to the DEMOCRATS who pushed the housing bubble.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:
Bush lied and it got us into a war which cost a lot of lives. Obama lied and people ended up with better health insurance.

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...more so since everyone seems to think the law was magically prevent insurance companies from dropping people that the statement was a lie.

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the law IS making Ins.companies drop people. Millions of people.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
If Bush lied, then so did every single high level Democrat lie as well.

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he law IS making Ins.companies drop people. Millions of people.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
"So we have the "But Bush..." parade yet again."

Yes, we do.

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, Obama's statement proved false. What else is there to discuss?

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Originally posted by Niki2:
We already HAVE discussed Obama's statement...in great depth. The simple fact is that he said people could keep their insurance, and they COULD HAVE, if the INSURANCE COMPANIES hadn't canceled the plans.

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The idea of providing health care for everyone is commendable, but the implementation by this administration has been massively botched.

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Obama is rightly taking flack for making a promise he wasn't going to keep, and he's right to apologize for it. But he shouldn't apologize for blowing up the individual market. It needed to be done.

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Obama was wrong to promise that everyone who liked their insurance could keep it. For a small minority of Americans, that flatly isn't true. But the real sin would've been leaving the individual insurance market alone.

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