One of the many reasons I supported Obama was that he saw just how broken our healthcare system was. When I graduated college, I lost my healthcare. People in our country end up being hospitalized and, without healthcare, losing their jobs. Besides the fact that the system leaves far too many unemployed, there’s also another issue: our system is the most ineffective, most costly system in the world. We pay more than anyone else to get less. Bill Clinton, in campaigning for his wife, pointed out that we could close our eyes and blindly pick the healthcare plan of nearly any country, and it would save us billions and probably end up insuring more people.

People have every right to ask pointed questions about the plans being put forth. The government has a bad track record of running things, so people are right to be skeptical. Some people, after reviewing the plan, might find reasons to oppose it.

But a lot of the reasons people are opposing healthcare are bald-faced lies. For example, Sarah Palin stirred up quite a controversy when she criticized the “death panels” in Obama’s health-care bill, that would decide whether to continue supporting old people or just let them die to save money. While this might seem to be so ludicrous that no one would believe this could be real, it seems to have become a giant controversy.

In actuality, it’s kind of like when McCain accused Obama of having passed a bill to provide sex-ed to preschoolers: the words may have been technically accurate, but the meaning was so completely false as to constitute a bald-faced lie. (The bill Obama voted for was essentially telling young kids, “If someone tries to touch you inappropriate ways, you should tell another adult.”)

The “death panels” come from talk about end-of-like issues. Except there are no panels to decide who will live and who will die. Instead, the bill ensures that people will be able to talk with experts, up to every 5 years, about things live advance care directives and living wills. (I don’t see it in the text of the article, but from what I’m told, the bill explicitly mentions that it shall not provide for euthanasia.)

Next time you hear someone talking about Obama’s death panels, would you do us all a favor and point out that they’re lying through their teeth?