So if you frequent my blog I’m sure you’ll know that I like politics and American politics is just so much more interesting than what happens up here in Canada.  Anyway I was reading up on PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of The Year and it’s the phrase that Republicans love to use “Government takeover of health care”.  Anyone who’s truly followed Health Care reform in the US knows that there is absolutely no government take over of health care at all.  In fact the public option (which was pushed early on) was removed and health care in the US is still for profit, there are just more rules so health insurers can’t milk the American people like they use to (well not as much anyway).

In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to overhaul America’s health insurance system. Frank Luntz, a consultant famous for his phraseology, urged GOP leaders to call it a “government takeover.”

“Takeovers are like coups,” Luntz wrote in a 28-page memo. “They both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom.”

The line stuck. By the time the health care bill was headed toward passage in early 2010, Obama and congressional Democrats had sanded down their program, dropping the “public option” concept that was derided as too much government intrusion. The law passed in March, with new regulations, but no government-run plan.

If you’re an American it’s a good read, too bad Government take over will not go away as easily as the stupid Death Panels thing, which happened to be 2009’s lie of the year…

PolitiFact is a non partisan organization and won a Pulitzer prize in 2009.  Oh I particularly enjoyed the “Pants on Fire” portion of the site, it’s certainly very entertaining and would be funny if it weren’t so sad that this is what the political elite is spewing to the US electorate.