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President Obama's oft-repeated promise that "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it" 

 was Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's claim that Jeep was moving U.S. production to China. 

, it chose a claim by Democrats that Republicans had "voted to end Medicare." 

 was the charge made by Republicans that Obama was pushing "a government takeover of health care."
The 

first lie of the year "award" from PolitiFact

 was 2009's claim from Sarah Palin and other conservatives that Obama's health care plan would create "death panels."


Other contenders for the 2013 lie of the year title included:

-- Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's assertion that members of Congress would be exempt from the new health care law.

-- Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann's claim that the IRS would be "in charge" of "a huge national database" containing Americans' health care records.

-- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter's comment that "no doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare."

In naming "you can keep it" as 2013's big fib, PolitiFact concedes that its own rating of that claim has changed over time:

Update at 1:55 p.m. ET. White House Says Year End Lists Are "Always Fun," But Won't Affect History's Judgment:

Asked to comment on the "lie of the year" judgment, White House spokesman Jay Carney just told reporters that end of year lists are "always fun, even when they don't jibe with past characterizations of the same statement" — a reference to PolitiFact's earlier "half true" ratings of the president's statement.

Pressed about whether such judgments will affect the president's legacy, Carney said "I don't think history's assessment of this period will depend on end of the year lists."


He also said, though, that "you're going to get no argument from me" that the roll out of the health care program has been anything other than "rocky."  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Politics and Government News

Mark Memmott

Author

PolitiFact's 2012 "lie of the year" was Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's claim that Jeep was moving U.S. production to China. In 2011, it chose a claim by Democrats that Republicans had "voted to end Medicare."

PolitiFact awards Obama 'Lie Of The Year'

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