When someone doesn't tell the truth, it's OK to point out that they're lying.

Bill Keller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who served as the managing editor of the NY Times from 1997-2001. He wrote a column in today's NY Times called 5 Obamacare Myths. Unless you are a NYT subscriber, you are limited in the number of articles you can read each month, so allow me to hit the high points:

"...a number of fallacies seem to be congealing into accepted wisdom. Much of this is the result of unrelenting Republican propaganda and right-wing punditry, but it has gone largely unchallenged by gun-shy Democrats. The result is that voters are confronted with slogans and side issues — “It’s a tax!” “No, it’s a penalty!” — rather than a reality-based discussion."[All emphasis that follows is mine.]

Myth #1: Obamacare is a job-killer. "After years of trying out various alarmist falsehoods the Republicans have found one that seems, judging from the polls, to have connected with the fears of voters. Some of the job-killer scare stories are based on a deliberate misreading of a Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the law would “reduce the amount of labor used in the economy” by about 800,000 jobs. Sounds like a job-killer, right? Not if you read what the C.B.O. actually wrote. While some low-wage jobs might be lost, the C.B.O. number mainly refers to workers who — being no longer so dependent on employers for their health-care safety net — may choose to retire earlier or work part time. Those jobs would then be open for others who need them....The job-killer claim is also discredited by the experience under the Massachusetts law on which Obamacare was modeled."


Myth #2: Obamacare is a federal takeover of health insurance. Here Keller does what many journalists have forgotten is part of their job: Separating lies from truth. There are not two sides to every story. The Sun rises in the east, period. " Let’s be blunt. The word for that is “lie.” The main thing the law does is deliver 30 million new customers to the private insurance industry. Indeed, a significant portion of the unhappiness with Obamacare comes from liberals who believe it is not nearly federal enough: that the menu of insurance choices should have included a robust public option, or that Medicare should have been expanded into a form of universal coverage....This is a “federal takeover” only in the crazy world where Barack Obama is a “socialist.”

Myth #3: The unfettered marketplace is a better solution: " To the extent there is a profound difference of principle anywhere in this debate, it lies here. Conservatives contend that if you give consumers a voucher or a tax credit and set them loose in the marketplace they will do a better job than government at finding the services — schools, retirement portfolios, or in this case health insurance policies — that fit their needs."

Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth fund, points out the fallacy of this argument with regard to health care: "Ten percent of the population accounts for 60 percent of the health outlays. They are the very sick, and they are not really in a position to make cost-conscious choices.”

Myth #4: Leave it to the states, they'll fix it. "The Republican alternative to Obamacare consists in large part of letting each state do its own thing. Presumably the best ideas will go viral....Obamacare actually underwrites pilot programs to reduce costs, and gives states freedom — some would argue too much freedom — in designing insurance-buying exchanges. But the best ideas don’t spread spontaneously. Some states are too poor to adopt worthwhile reforms. Some are intransigent, or held captive by lobbies."

Myth #5: OBAMACARE IS A LOSER. RUN AGAINST IT, RUN FROM IT, BUT FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE DON’T RUN ON IT. "When Mitt Romney signed that Massachusetts law in 2006, the coverage kicked in almost immediately. Robert Blendon, a Harvard expert on health and public opinion, recalls the profusion of heartwarming stories about people who had depended on emergency rooms and charity but now, at last, had a regular relationship with a doctor. Romneycare was instantly popular in the state, and remains so, though it seems to have been disowned by its creator."

"Unfortunately, the benefits of Obamacare do not go wide until 2014, so there are not yet testimonials from enthusiastic, family-next-door beneficiaries. This helps explain why the bill has not won more popular affection. "

"Even before the law takes full effect, it has a natural constituency, starting with every cancer victim, every H.I.V. sufferer, everyone with a condition that now would keep them from getting affordable coverage. Any family that has passed through the purgatory of cancer — as mine did this year, with decent insurance — can imagine the hell of doing it without insurance."

This will be my last post for awhile. I'll be traveling a lot over the next 2-3 weeks including some time on the Adirondack island I wrote about last year that's hell for teenagers: No bars on the cell phone, no internet connection and only one or two over-the-air TV channels. Hey, we have electricity, a landline phone, running water and indoor plumbing so let's not be greedy!