PolitiFact readers overwhelming chose Sarah Palin’s claim that the health care bill contains “death panels” as Lie of the Year. A resounding 61 percent of our 4,864 voters picked death panels as the top lie. No other finalist in the field of eight statements came close.
Here are the runners-up:
• With 12.3 percent of the vote, a claim by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s top science adviser, “has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.”
• With 8.7 percent of the vote, a claim by Orly Taitz that a birth certificate showed that President Obama was born in Kenya.
• With 7.1 percent of the vote, President Obama’s statement that “preventive care saves money.”
Rounding out the rest of the finalists:
• 5.8 percent: The shout of “You lie!” by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., in response to President Obama saying health reform would not insure illegal immigrants.
• 3.2 percent: The claim that Page 92 of the House health care bill “says specifically that people can’t purchase private health insurance after a date certain,” said by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.
• 1.7 percent: The claim that “When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft,” said by Vice President Joe Biden, when fears of swine flu were prevalent.
• 0.5 percent: The claim that an amendment to the House health reform bill “puts new restrictions on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market even when they would pay premiums with their own money,” said by Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
And the runners-up …
By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 5:13 p.m.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/dec/18/lie-year-runners-up/
