Frum: Seniors Are Already in Public Plan – Medicare – Govt ‘Could Kill Them All Now If It Wanted to’

A poll last week about who believes what lies about health-insurance reform proved to be a damning indictment of Fox News and of the insurance lobby’s use of the Republican Party’s propaganda machine to disinform the public about reforms.

“The thing that is so wacky about this debate is that it is already true that virtually everybody over 65 is enrolled in a public plan. The government could kill them all now if it wanted to.”
– David Frum

The NBC poll found that a whopping 75 percent of Fox viewers, versus 45 percent of the population overall, believe that Democratic reforms include provisions that would require senior citizens to be evaluated for euthanasia by “death panels.”

This lie, which was first floated by health-industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey and Facebook blogger Sarah Palin and has been heavily promoted on Fox, has been disproved by non-partisan evaulators like Factcheck.org. And yet, like the good soldiers that they are, Republican pols and pundits have fallen in line to promote this disinformation to their followers.

The latest is Sen. John McCain (R-Maverick), who flushed away what was left of his credibility in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday:

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