I’m tired of hearing from pundits of the “liberal” media that there is no public support for a public option on health care. In poll after poll, there continues to be a majority of Americans that support the creation of a public health insurance option that would compete with the private health insurers. This continues to be the case despite the so called uprising at these town halls in the month of August. A more accurate description of these town halls would be that of a vocal minority that was driven by fear tactics and misconceptions.

I believe that support for a public option would become overwhelming (even though I think 77 percent is already quite overwhelming) if it weren’t for a concerted effort by forces on the right to distort and lie about the facts concerning health care reform. Distortions and lies that have clearly taken hold in the American public as represented by a NBC poll taken a couple weeks back. 45 percent of Americans believe that the government will start making decisions about when to stop providing medical care, the so called “death panels.” Also, a majority believe that proposed health care plans will provide insurance to illegal immigrants and use tax-payer money to fund abortions. None of these claims are true, yet a shocking amount of Americans believe they will likely occur under any Obama supported health care plan. Imagine how much support there would be for a public option if people didn’t believe these absolute falsehoods promoted by people like Palin, Grassley, and others on the right. It’s very troubling to see those results, but hopefully not too late to correct them. And it all starts tomorrow with Obama’s address to Congress.

Here are some highlights from those protestors and their substantive complaints: