What the CBO's New Obamacare Report Actually Says About Jobs
Slatest PM: CBO Report Reignite's Obamacare Fight
By Josh Voorhees
The CBO Report: New York Times: "A new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office says that the Affordable Care Act will result in more than 2 million fewer full-time workers in the next several years, providing Republican opponents of the law a powerful political weapon leading up to this year’s midterm elections. The law is also expected to have a significant effect on hours worked, the nonpartisan budget office said in a regular update to its budget projections released Tuesday. With the expansion of insurance coverage, more workers will choose not to work and others will choose to work fewer hours than they might have otherwise, it said. The decline in hours worked will translate into a loss of the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time positions by 2024, the budget office said. The budget office analysis found that much of the law’s effect comes from reducing the need for people to take a full-time job just to get insurance coverage, and from the premium subsidies effectively bolstering household income."
The Talking Points: Washington Post: "Republicans quickly pointed to the report’s findings as more evidence of the health-care law’s flaws, one of their major themes ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Republicans see the Affordable Care Act as a political boon this year, after the disastrous launch of the law’s Web site last fall. ... The White House rushed to respond, insisting that the law will be positive for the economy and that any reduction in total workers will be far offset by the law’s benefits. It also stressed, as the CBO did, that the 2 million fewer workers reflect the equivalent of people dropping out of the labor force and cutting back on hours."
The Context: Moneybox's Matt Yglesias: "All things considered, I still think this is a happy story. Obamacare will kill jobs in the same way that Social Security kills jobs. By making it easier for people in certain circumstances to get by without a job. But your mileage may vary on this. The point, however, is that we're talking about people quitting not about people getting fired."
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