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
Look at yourself first, as they say. Your purpose doesn't seem to be a Reasonable Conversation. It is true that we are being forced to buy a plan or we will be fined. Quibbling over which plan, or how the word plan is defined, is not the point.
ReplyDeleteTruth exists.
"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." - Ayn Rand
Everything good in life requires free will.
Be careful what you wish for - particularly if forcing people is what you want. That force will be turned on you too.
"It is true that we are being forced to buy a plan or we will be fined. Quibbling over which plan, or how the word plan is defined, is not the point."
ReplyDelete"Truth exists."
***
That's fascinating. Dr. Bellar tells outright, vicious lies and you call it "quibbling," then make the case for an objective reality by saying, "truth exists."
I'm afraid you don't get to have it both ways. If truth exists and she is lying to mislead people, then that is wrong. If truth doesn't exist, then we can say she is doing nothing wrong, and we can further make the case that cats go "woof, woof," rain falls up, and the Affordable Care Act provides for 16,000 IRS Agents.
The bottom line here is your oddball defense of Dr. Bellar's repeated lies simply because you agree with her overall point. That's dishonesty run amok.
*****
Ayn Rand's pithy quoted quotables mean jack-shit to me. Everything good in life does require free will? On that note, the punishment for not purchasing health insurance under the ACA is a few hundred bucks, and human beings are free to exercise their free will and go with that option.
Your insinuation of an attack on free will rings hollow unless you feel the same way about paying taxes and your inability to smoke cigarettes in the lung cancer wing of a children's hospital.
You say "everything good in life requires free will," and I, more realistically say, "everything good in society requires we make sure we don't allow one's exercise of free will to infringe on another's exercise of same."
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The author of the article, Mr. Corfield, is well aware that he will be among the Americans who have to provide health insurance for themselves. He accepts and understands that aspect of the law, as I've gleaned from his numerous intelligent and thoughtful writings on the subject.
"Forcing" drivers to purchase automobile insurance, "forcing" people to pay income taxes to fund things we all use, "forcing" people to not kill each other for the fun of it...these are things that have made our lives better, not worse.
Your insinuation that exercises of free-will should remain unchecked and unpunished would lead to complete anarchy and the destruction of society.
Hell, people still have unchecked free will. I can go and not pay my taxes. Or not purchase health insurance. Or punch my wife in the face. I just have to deal with the fair consequences of such actions. As Ayn Rand said, "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."
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By the way, Mr. Corfield, you will be happy to know Dr. Bellar got her ass handed to her in the Illinois' 18th District State Senate race, and was defeated by democrat Bill Cunningham.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a few of the voters happened upon this page in course of researching the lying bitch and it rightfully influenced their decision.
Thank you for calling out what you find untruthful on both sides of the aisle. We need more people like you and less people who ignore reality when speaking and think there are no consequences, like "Dr." Bellar. After all...
"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." - Ayn Rand
Indeed, Dr. Bellar. Indeed.
"...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." <--- What about the rest of the sentence? You don't dispute any of that? Are you okay with those things, or do you just play dumb on the internet?
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIf after reading my full post on Dr. Bellar, you conclude that I'm in lock step with Dr. Bellar's views on the ACA, may I suggest you go back and re-read what I wrote.
I doubt Dr. Bellar and I agree on anything on this topic. Just because I didn't EVERY SINGLE word she uttered, doesn't mean I agree with her.