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PolitiFact Natonal’s Lie of the Year: Government ‘takeover of health care’

By Angie Drobnic Holan
December 17, 2010
By Bill Adair
December 17, 2010

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.”

Less than two years later, PolitiFact National has chosen “government takeover of health care” as the 2010 Lie of the Year.

Read the detailed write-up by clicking here.

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