I was somewhat shocked to turn to The Fox Nation this morning and see the following headline:

“Wait a sec,” I thought. “Nobel laureate Paul Krugman thinks there are death panels in the health care bill? That doesn't sound right.”

And, of course, it isn't.

Fox Nation is linking to a clip from Krugman's appearance on ABC's This Week last Sunday. In the clip, Krugman expresses frustration with a right wing that simultaneously screams about how the recently-passed health care legislation has death panels to kill old people, and claims that the bill won't save money. Krugman notes that this is contradictory: If we were killing old people instead of providing them with health care, obviously we would save money.

Jake Tapper chimes in, tongue planted firmly in cheek, to say, “Death panels would save money, theoretically.” The panel laughs. Then, moving on to things that are actually in the bill, rather than the illusory death panels, Krugman says:

The advisory path, which has the ability to make more or less binding judgments on saying this particular expensive treatment actually doesn't do any good medically and so we're not going to pay for it, that is actually going to save quite a lot of money. We don't know how much yet. The CBO gives it very little credit. But most of the health care economists I talk to think it's going to be a really major cost saving.

Why am I so sure that Krugman isn't admitting the existence of death panels in the health reform legislation? Because he's previously referred in his column to the death panel claim as a “complete fabrication,” a “smear” (twice), and “lies” (three times), and stated that it's being promoted by a “lunatic fringe.”

That “lunatic fringe,” of course, is alive and well at Fox Nation and Fox News, which have consistently promoted the death panel myth.