Checking the Truth-O-Meter

We know at least one Republican congressman thinks President Obama is a liar.

But how did the president score on truthfulness in his health reform speech last night? When some of Obama's statements were scrutinized by PolitiFact.com, there were at least a couple of false or misleading claims. The website, a project of the St. Petersburg Times, ran four assertions made by the president through its "truth-o-meter."

In the spirit of bipartisan support, the president told Congress last night that his reform package is "a plan that incorporates ideas from many of the people in this room tonight—Democrats and Republicans." The truth-o-meter registers that claim as "barely true." Ideas drawn from Republicans were minor or technical, PolitiFact says.

Another statement by the president that preventive care "saves money" is false, the website says, citing the Congressional Budget Office. (The subject actually stirs a great deal of debate in health care circles.)

But the president was truthful when he called death panels "a lie, plain and simple," and when he said nothing in his plan would require people to change their insurance coverage or their doctors.

As for the Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, he made a false statement himself last night when he yelled "you lie" to the president, the truth-o-meter found. Wilson, who forever will be known as the congressman who heckled the president, shouted his accusation after Obama said his reform plan wouldn't insure illegal immigrants.