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Obamacare Will Kill Jobs, Worsen Poverty, Slow Economic Growth and Drive Up Your Medical Costs
Townhall.com ^ | February 7, 2014 | Donald Lambro

Posted on 02/07/2014 8:31:48 AM PST by Kaslin

WASHINGTON - The fiery debate over Obamacare this week sparked new fears about the harm it will inflict on our economy, jobs and the rising costs of medical care.

They were ignited by the Congressional Budget Office's troubling forecasts of the health insurance law's impact on all of us that raised many more questions than answers.

But a few things became clearer in the aftermath of this week's firefight between the White House, Democrats and the law's Republican

critics:

The law will further reduce our nation's dwindling work force.

It will cut the hours worked among many Americans as employers attempt to avoid its employment health care costs. And the vastly inflated enrollment numbers used by President Obama and his administration do not hold up to serious scrutiny.

The White House, whose dishonesty index skyrocketed when five million Americans lost the insurance they liked and their doctors, defended the program. Obama's health care law is "helping labor markets, is helping businesses and is helping jobs," said Jason Furman, the president's chief economist.

That's not how Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described the CBO's outlook on what Obamacare would do to the U.S. economy in the years to come.

"Today's CBO report gives a sobering outlook on our economy. It confirms what we've known all along: The health care law is having a tremendously negative impact on economic growth."

Stripped of its other economic analysis, CBO essentially forecasts that more than 2 million Americans, who have relied on obtaining health insurance through an employer, will see their work hours reduced or they will stop working altogether as a result of the Affordable Care Act's medical care benefits.

Why? CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf offered this answer Wednesday at the House Budget Committee's hearing that made some Democrats cringe:

"By providing heavily subsidized health insurance... to people with very low incomes... the [Affordable Care Act] creates a disincentive for people to work relative to what would have been the case in the absence of the [law]."

Then Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) weighed in with this jaw-breaking observation: "These changes -- they disproportionately affect low-wage workers. Translation -- Washington is making the poverty trap worse."

All of this opens up a new political can of worms for an unpopular law that has been racked by multiple debacles in its botched web site rollout, shaky finances, despotic mandates, and new Constitutional court challenges.

The latest revelations now further threaten Democratic lawmakers with widespread retaliation from the voters in the 2014 midterm elections. And there were new signs this week that many of Obamacare's once-stalwart defenders were distancing themselves from the controversial law.

The Washington Post, one of the law's most enthusiastic defenders, reported Wednesday that when the CBO report came out, "few Democrats publicly defended the law, a sign that lawmakers recognize its vulnerability."

Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said at the House Budget Committee hearing on the report that CBO's findings triggered "hysteria" on his side of the aisle.

Maybe that's why Obama devoted a mere 462 words to his signature law in his State of the Union speech that was 6,778 words long -- despite one administrative disaster after another.

CBO tried to steer a middle course through its thorny economic forecasts. It insisted that businesses would not significantly cut employment rolls or reduce hours work to stay under a 30 hour threshold to avoid providing workers with health care benefits. No one believes that except its most ardent defenders.

But CBO does forecast long-term employment trouble ahead in future years, saying Obamacare will result in the economy losing 2.3 million full-time workers by 2021. That is almost three times its earlier estimates.

Then there are the wildly exaggerated estimates by the administration on the number of Americans who've signed up for Obamacare and its expanded Medicaid program.

For example, the administration claims that 6.3 million Americans became eligible for Medicaid between October and December because of the new law. But a study by the health-care industry consulting firm Avalere Health found a much smaller number (between 1 or 2 million) actually signed up because of the Obamacare law.

Many were renewals in the usual ebb and flow of the Medicaid enrollment population that have more to do with rising or falling incomes, the study found. Judith Solomon, vice president of health policy at the Center on Budget ad Policy Priorities, told the Post that Avalere's numbers were likely more accurate than the administration's figures.

One of the biggest and most politically explosive issues raised by the CBO report became lost in all of the mumbo-jumbo murkiness of its findings.

It was left to Paul Ryan to lay bare one of Obamacare's worst offenses, that it will hurt many millions of Americans, especially the poorest, most vulnerable in our economy.

At one key point in the hearing, Ryan bored deeper into Obamacare's many flaws, asking CBO's Elmendorf that if the new law would reduce the labor participation rate, as he says, wouldn't it therefore hurt economic growth?

Elmendorf agreed that, yes, that would happen.

But there were broader problems in CBO's estimates, according to the University of Maryland's business school economist Peter Morici.

The impact would be worse than CBO forecasts.

"CBO once again low-balls the impact of the Affordable Care Act on labor force participation and the economy," he writes in his analysis of their report. The economic growth rate "and employment for most workers will be harmed," he said.

But this is just the tip of the economic iceberg that lies beneath Obamacare. Higher, unbreakable poverty rates, disincentives to work, and a shrinking American work force that will further weaken our sluggish economy are just the beginning of what awaits us under this harmful law.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 02/07/2014 8:31:48 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Everyday I wake up hoping a Politician or Justice kicked the bucket for putting this curse on America.


2 posted on 02/07/2014 8:34:09 AM PST by angcat
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To: Kaslin

We all knew this and warned everyone, but they had their hands over their ears and shouted “Obamacare means free healthcare for everyone!”
(and you’re a racist for saying anything different)


3 posted on 02/07/2014 8:36:25 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Kaslin

That makes it a rousing success as far as Democrats are concerned!

And the American public is STILL largely unaware what’s coming.


4 posted on 02/07/2014 8:37:10 AM PST by brownsfan (Behold, the power of government cheese.)
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To: Kaslin

“Obamacare Will Kill Jobs, Worsen Poverty, Slow Economic Growth and Drive Up Your Medical Costs”

That is exactly why ObamaCare is Obama’s signature legislation. While everything Obama has done since taking power has supported the goals of killing jobs, worsening poverty, slowing economic growth, and driving up costs for working Americans, no other single Obama effort has scored in all categories to such an impressive extent.


5 posted on 02/07/2014 8:39:36 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Kaslin

Yeah... but this was old news and known before it became reality.


6 posted on 02/07/2014 8:40:23 AM PST by maddog55
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To: Kaslin; All
Obamacare Democratcare Will Kill Jobs, Worsen Poverty, Slow Economic Growth and Drive Up Your Medical Costs

Regarding title of artice, as freeper Mark mentioned to me, Democratcare is a good name for unpopular Obamacare in an election year.

7 posted on 02/07/2014 8:41:09 AM PST by Amendment10
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To: MrB

Eggactly!
Like Nancy Says: Embrace the Suck.
Cause this Country has been fundamentally transformed and not for the better. I don’t recognize my country and countrymen. (But my German mother says this is all too familiar to her. )


8 posted on 02/07/2014 8:53:42 AM PST by griswold3 (Post-Christian America is living on borrowed moral heritage)
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And still nobody is doing anything about undoing what has been done. Just talk. All talk. And to top it all off, we probably have an illegitimate occupant in main seat.


9 posted on 02/07/2014 8:54:40 AM PST by b4its2late (A Progressive is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own.)
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To: Amendment10

“Democratcare”

Brilliant. This should replace Obamacare.


10 posted on 02/07/2014 8:55:26 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: angcat

Our forefathers would not have waited until someone croaked. They actually held criminals accountable and punished them. Our government has endorsed racism and sponsored narco-terrorism. It’s way past time to start removing the perpetrators from office.


11 posted on 02/07/2014 8:56:01 AM PST by MikeSteelBe (Austrian Hitler was, as the Halfrican Hitler does.)
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To: Kaslin
Obamacare Will Kill Jobs, Worsen Poverty, Slow Economic Growth and Drive Up Your Medical Costs

And that's before we put 10-30 million illegals on it.



But all is not lost. Nancy Pelosi says the jobs losses are a good thing as you are then free to follow your bliss.



"Keine arbeit macht frei"

12 posted on 02/07/2014 9:03:27 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor)
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To: Kaslin

We are witnessing the first of many major Public tests of the failed Keynesian Economic Theory, (KET).

The current test will will be very painful and moderately short IF the damn Congressional RINOs do not “rescue” KET, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, Food Stamps, Unemployment Payments, and Quantitative Easing.


13 posted on 02/07/2014 9:03:46 AM PST by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: Pollster1

And all the pleasant conditions that you mentioned above will only increase racial strive and crime rate.


14 posted on 02/07/2014 9:10:25 AM PST by 353FMG
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To: Graewoulf
We are witnessing the first of many major Public tests of the failed Keynesian Economic Theory, (KET).

Agreed. The law will have a downward spiral effect on the economy with ripples lasting years, if not decades. 2.5m out of the workforce will mean fewer able to pay into the system, thus increasing participation costs, which will mean fewer able to afford coverage. That will reduce the number of those paying into the system... on and on it goes.

15 posted on 02/07/2014 9:11:59 AM PST by rjsimmon (1-20-2013 The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: Kaslin

The latest revelations now further threaten Democratic lawmakers with widespread retaliation from the voters in the 2014 midterm elections.

Some find out the price of socialism the hard.


16 posted on 02/07/2014 9:18:55 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: Kaslin
As it was designed to do---

HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL STATE BY SAUL ALINSKY...

THERE ARE 8 LEVELS OF CONTROL THAT MUST BE OBTAINED BEFORE YOU ARE ABLE TO CREATE A SOCIALIST STATE.

The first is the most important.

1) Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people.

2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.

3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.

4) Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.

5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives. (Food, Housing, and Income)

6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.

7) Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.

8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.

DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE UNITED STATES ?

17 posted on 02/07/2014 9:19:18 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: Kaslin
Obamacare Will Kill Jobs, Worsen Poverty, Slow Economic Growth and Drive Up Your Medical Costs

That's what it's SUPPOSED TO DO! So, what's the problem?????...................

18 posted on 02/07/2014 9:25:47 AM PST by Red Badger (Proud member of the Zeta Omicron Tau Fraternity since 2004...................)
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To: lonestar

You hit the nail right on the head. Was there ever any doubt this is where Zero was headed...led by the Mrs?


19 posted on 02/07/2014 9:26:38 AM PST by Kackikat
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To: Kaslin

The whole scope of the obamacare is to destroy the middle class. The loss of jobs is intentional. If all the folks now holding good jobs with benefits can be run out of those jobs, then the businesses can hire illegal mexicans at slave wages. That’s the major reason for the push for amnesty.


20 posted on 02/07/2014 9:32:38 AM PST by WVNan
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