Fact Check

Donald Trump on Obamacare

Rumor: Donald Trump issued a pithy criticism of Obamacare.

Published July 2, 2012

Claim:

Claim:   Donald Trump issued a pithy criticism of Obamacare.


INCORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, July 2012]


I recently read an article on facebook attributed to Donald Trump about Obamacare. Here it is:

Let me get this straight...
We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least ten 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 who didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a Dumbo President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government who has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke!!!!


 

Origins:   In the wake of a June 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of health care reform legislation commonly known as Obamacare, the above-quoted criticism of that legislation began circulating online, commonly attributed to business magnate Donald Trump. This item saw renewed circulation in mid-2015, when Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

However, this criticism didn't originate with any public statement made by Donald Trump: it's an anonymous bit of political humor that has been posted and reposted many times in blogs and social media since at least as far back as March 2010.

A number of sources (such as Fox News and CNSNews.com) have erroneously attributed credit for this quip to Dr. Barbara Bellar, an Illinois State Senate candidate who used it in a speech she delivered at a Chicago Women for Romney rally in August 2012. However, as noted above, this bit had already been repeatedly posted to online sites for more than two years before Dr. Bellar incorporated it into her 2012 speech (and she has acknowledged that she was not its originator):


So let me get this straight. This is a long sentence.

We are going to be gifted with a health care plan that we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don't, which reportedly covers 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman doesn't understand it, passed by Congress, that didn't read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, 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 bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and financed by a country that is broke.

So what the blank could possibly go wrong?



 

Last updated:   8 July 2015

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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