The Republican Wrong – More Death Panels

As the health care reform bill has passed into law, it might be thought that the welter of scare stories from the right would die down. But that would be to forget the upcoming mid term elections, and the need for candidates to garner votes by a variety of tactics, including frightening the voters.

One state where the voter frightening has been ratcheted up is Florida: here, there is a larger than average percentage of retirees, and so they have been routinely targeted by hopefuls including retired airline pilot Dan Fanelli, running against a Democrat incumbent in Florida’s 8th district, which includes the city of Orlando.

Fanelli has put together a video with one central thrust: that under “Obamacare”, the elderly will be denied treatment once they have passed the “age limit”. This claim has aroused the interest of the folks at Politifact.com, who have investigated in their customarily rigorous style.

And, sad to say for Orlando’s Republican cheerleaders, they have found Fanelli’s claim to have no basis in fact – at all. So they have been able to award the former pilot their coveted “Pants on Fire” award.

Expect more of the same between now and November.