Obama calls for 'honest debate' on health care

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is challenging his critics on a national health care overhaul, accusing them of making "phony claims" about the legislation. "This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I'm glad that so many are engaged," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are." Obama said illegal immigrants would not be part of the health care overhaul, taxpayers would not be mandated to fund abortions and he does not intend a government takeover of health care — all claims that critics have made at contentious town hall-style meetings with members of Congress. He also took a swipe at "death panels," an idea former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced on her Facebook page. "As every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called death panels — an offensive notion to me and to the American people," Obama said. "These are phony claims meant to divide us."