If Paul Krugman, Steve Benen, and Little Matt Yglesias are shrieking hysterically, it must be good!
Lie of the Year 2011: ‘Republicans voted to end Medicare’
Republicans muscled a budget through the House of Representatives in April that they said would take an important step toward reducing the federal deficit. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the plan kept Medicare intact for people 55 or older, but dramatically changed the program for everyone else by privatizing it and providing government subsidies.
Democrats pounced. Just four days after the party-line vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a Web ad that said seniors will have to pay $12,500 more for health care “because Republicans voted to end Medicare.”
…PolitiFact debunked the Medicare charge in nine separate fact-checks rated False or Pants on Fire, most often in attacks leveled against Republican House members.
Now, PolitiFact has chosen the Democrats’ claim as the 2011 Lie of the Year.
- Paul Krugman: Politifact, R.I.P.
- Steve Benen: PolitiFact ought to be ashamed of itself
- Matthew Yglesias: Politifact’s Bizarre “Lie of the Year”
Politifact’s on fire!
Fact is, Medicare – and Social Security, too, while we’re at it – are going to change. The question is: do we want to change them now, when we can control it? Or do we want to change them later, when the choices will be disastrous taxes and/or drastic cuts?
Paul Ryan’s plan: change it now, while we can still save it. Krugman, Benen, and Yglesias: let it die on the vine, so we can blame Republicans!
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