NORFOLK, VA — Upon hearing that Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has joined Mitt Romney as a running mate, Democrats moved to scare senior citizens by repeating and overheating a charge that Politifact branded the 2011 “lie of the year”.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called Ryan “the architect of the Republican plan to kill Medicare” in a fundraising message sent by DCCC executive director Robby Mook. Mook explained the thinking behind making that charge in the next line, explaining that he wants to define Ryan in the minds of the American people as quickly as possible.

Romney anticipated that charge in his speech introducing Ryan today. “We will preserve and protect Medicare and Social Security,” he promised.

Politifact rebuked Democrats for engaging in scare tactics when it unveiled the 2011 “Lie of the Year” Award. “A complicated and wonky subject with life-or-death consequences, health care is fertile ground for falsehoods,” the fact checker said. “The Democratic attack about “ending Medicare” was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors’ worries about whether they could afford health care.”

Read more at the Washington Examiner.