+Health Care | 525 days ago

Politifact’s “Lie of the Year”

By Kate Pickert

It says something about the success of a misinformation campaign when it’s called out for official recognition two years in a row. Politifact, the independent fact-checking web site associated with the St. Petersburg Times, named “death panels” it’s “Lie of the Year” in 2009. This year’s winner: “government takeover of health care.”

Correctly pointing out that the phrase was promoted early on by Republican wordsmith strategist Frank Luntz, Politifact writes today that, “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.”

Asserting that, “PolitiFact is not making a judgment on whether the health care law is good policy” the organization lists the reasons that “government takeover” earned top billing for dishonesty this year.

+Senate | 753 days ago

Democrats Take a Page From the Frank Luntz Playbook

By Adam Sorensen

When Mitch McConnell unveiled his opposition to the Dodd financial reform bill last month, I highlighted the similarities between the minority leader’s floor speech and a memo from GOP message maven Frank Luntz. Their (mischaracterizing) argument was that the legislation would institutionalize Wall Street bailouts on the taxpayer’s dime. Luntz’s memo didn’t just provide a [...]

+Health Care | 804 days ago

Health Care: The Talking Points

By Karen Tumulty

If the House does succeed in passing this health care bill, that’s a big step. But it is just the beginning of the battle for many members. The next thing the Democrats will have to do is convince a very divided and skeptical public that they did the right thing. We were reminded of how [...]