Recently, Mrs. Bellar has been the focus of national media attention, especially Fox News, mostly due to a video of some remarks she made about Obamacare at a rally for Illinois Women for Romney/Ryan. (She was on Greta Van Susteren's show last night and will appear on Lou Dobbs show tonight.) Her remarks build off of one particular sentence that sort of gets the ball rolling in her speech:
We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding same sentence – with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted social security and medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and (laughing & applause) and financed by a country that’s broke.
Dr. Barbara Bellar-Candidate for Illinois State Senate
Where to begin?
The fact checkers are having a field day with Dr. Bellar, as almost everything in that sentence is factually incorrect.
Let's break down that sentence and see how it holds up...
"We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t,..."
Wrong - If you have health insurance, you are not forced by the ACA to change plans. If you don't have insurance and can afford it, you will be expected to purchase it. The "fines" she speaks of are pooled into a fund that will help pay for uninsured people who require healthcare, which the public winds up paying for.
"which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people..."
Wrong - The ACA is expected to help 30 million, not ten million, acquire health insurance, many of whom are currently accessing their healthcare through the most expensive of ways, the emergency room.
"without adding a single new doctor,"
Wrong - According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 15,000 new doctors should be in place by 2015.
"provides for 16,000 new IRS agents...,"
Wrong - According to the Factcheck.com, this is considered "wildly inaccurate." Its assumes every penny of money allocated to the IRS would be spent on new employees and every single one of them would be an "agent."
Read more fact-checking of Bellar's remarks here...
Watch Dr. Bellar's comments in full:
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What troubles me greatly about Mrs. Bellar's comments is the blatent and bold-faced mis-information she puts forth as truth. She does so, obviously in an attempt to position herself as the credible, conservative candidate who will make life better for those in her State. Her disregard for factual information, given her position in our society, I find offensive and self-serving. She's apparently sold her soul in an attempt to attain public office. She brings shame to her profession and her career.
From her website's homepage:
This is the kind of person we need to turn Illinois around.
This is the kind of person who will truly represent her constituents.
This is the kind of person of integrity and character that Illinois needs.
The last line says it all.
Sources:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Closer-Look-Hit-video-criticizes-Obamacare-3887431.php
