Death panel myth will not die

Among the right-wing faithful, at least, the myth of the so-called "death panel" persists:

When Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com, introduced Ms. Palin [to the National Tea Party Convention] by describing her as “the first person to tell us about the death panel,” the crowd cheered.

Comments

[David]

Brendan didn't quote Breitbart's entire comment. He did say Palin was, "the first person to tell us about the death panel." However, he then added, ”Oh, I know the death panel didn't exist, but they got rid of it two days later." My memory is that after Palin's accusation, the Dems did indeed remove a provision of the bill that could be described, albeit melodramatically, as a "death panel".

[eric]

Since there was such an uproar, I read the original section of the bill that purportedly created the "death panel." There were two items of contention: One was the completely optional, and very common, end-of-life counseling; the other was very obviously just a discussion of the suggested services provided at different levels in the plan, like any health insurance (better, in fact, because this one had clear and obvious input from health care professionals). No reasonable person could call either provision a "death panel," and at the very, very least, there is absolutely nothing that I read that was different in substance than any other health care plan in America. Or, don't take my word for it and check politifact, which rates this as "pants on fire":

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/10/sarah-palin/sarah-palin-barack-obama-death-panel/

Additionally, Palin might have popularized the misconception, but she wasn't "the first person to tell us" about it. That was Betsy McCaughey. Breitbart didn't even get that much right.

Ugh! Sorry. Just fed up with the "death panel" nonsense.