Free Republic

Sweeping Health Bill Passes Senate Panel The $829B plan would require most Americans to purchase insurance Oct. 13: Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe announces in the Senate Finance Committee debate that she will vote for the heath care bill, telling her colleagues she has misgivings about the bill, but "when history calls, history calls." WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's vow to overhaul the U.S. health care system has cleared a key hurdle with a Senate committee passing a bill. The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation Tuesday that meets most of the requirements set out by Obama for expanding coverage and cutting...

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest. "Death panels." The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page. Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care —...