Lil White Lies: Take-over Hang-over

When PolitiFact published its “Lie of the Year”—that the healthcare reform passed in 2010 amounted to a "government take-over” as espoused by Frank Luntz, I dutifully published my response to Bryan White’s criticism of PolitiFact…then he, of course, published his criticism of MY criticism, as PolitiFact’s choice was, in his opinion, almost the crown jewel of evidence of PolitiFact’s liberal bias. This post included one particular observation which I am devoting this post to:

… With dozens of "well-known conservative pundits/politicians” calling it "socialized medicine" you'd think Street would have thought to give an example or two. Oh, well. She probably just copied the PolitiFact method. Simply stating it makes it sufficiently true.

Yes, I must admit Bryan was absolutely right and I just copied the PolitiFact method and simply stated it (not really, he ignored my examples, see below).  Because I found out it was not socialized medicine when I watched this Michele Bachmann "Infomercial" on Fox News just last night. I found out it’s even more: it’s the crown jewel of socialism:

Well, just to be clear, Bachmann (per Fox News' patronizing labels) calls it socialized medicine too:

Apparently, Bachmann's told Congress the same and has been calling all versions of healthcare reform this for quite some time.

Who are some of the other “well known conservative pundits and politicians” calling the healthcare bill socialized medicine?

Let’s start with politicians:  Newt Gingrich: May 15, 2010

Gingrich Says Obamacare "Socialized Medicine"…

Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, called the new law a back door to ‘socialized medicine’ that puts America at the edge of a possible catastrophic failure. He urged health care providers, business groups and lawmakers to think of ways and creative ideas to drive down health care costs.

Michael Steele (when he was RNC Chairman in mid 2009): (emphasis added)

Asked on Monday whether President Barack Obama's plan for health care reform represented socialism, RNC Chairman Michael Steele didn't waste words.

"Yes," he declared, "next question."

How about pundits? I already had the quotations from Sean Hannity’s recent book "Conservative Victory" in my original post, but I’ll repeat them here since a certain someone misrepresented that I didn’t have any examples: (emphasis added)

Only months into his presidency, he had so infuriated average Americans that a series of Tea Party protests emerged across the nation, attended by everyday people who were outraged and horrified by Obama's every decision: his reckless federal spending, his seizure of control of private industry, his cap-and-trade legislation, and his obsessive quest to nationalize one-sixth of the American economy through socialized health care. [Page 4]

[...]

Rather than responding to the real fear that his debt explosion struck in the heart of most Americans, he brazenly turned a deaf ear and pressed forward with his hugely unpopular question to nationalize our health care, proving he was anything but a president of the people. [Page 6]

[...]

As a leftist to his core, Barack Obama has been salivating over socialized medicine for years. It's the perfect policy vehicle for socialists who want to ensure that government's tentacles will spread into all aspects of our society. [Page 94]

Are there any other pundits calling it socialized medicine?

GLENN BECK: "President Obama has his massive $1.5 trillion health care plan. It's hogging up the news cycle. The Republicans and, you know, a lot of people are starting to say, 'Isn't this socialist here? I mean, this is pretty crazy.' The answer to me on that one is really easy: Yep, it's good old socialism. You know, pretty much raping the pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor. I think that's socialism." [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 7/21/09]

LIMBAUGH: "The Obama budget also funds the relentless drive toward socialized medicine. And all that is just the beginning. The way to look at this budget is not with an economic lens, it is with a philosophical one. Liberals want to make America -- remake it in their image. And this is how you will pay for it." ["Rush's Morning Update," 2/27/09]

Guest-hosting The O'Reilly Factor, Laura Ingraham stated: "Powerful arguments against socialized medicine have been around not for months, but for decades. Ronald Reagan was saying this back in 1961." After playing a clip from Reagan's recording, Ingraham added, "I have to believe that Ronald Reagan is smiling down on these town hall forums where law abiding and hard-working Americans are standing up for freedom." [Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, 8/14/09]

For links to the above quotations and a very detailed history of Republicans calling any and all healthcare reform socialized medicine, click here and here.  And just to make a point, here's one more nice Fox News banner from its financial news (after all, they don't just use it on their opinion shows):

I don’t think I need to go on here. But many thanks to Michele Bachmann for making "Obamacare" even more than a government takeover and even more than socialized medicine; after all, as Bryan White might say, there’s nothing like reductio ad absurdum to make a mockery of that slippery slope.