this AP fact-check article on her MSNBC show tonight, just before she interviewed Nancy Pelosi.
There is a substantial economic literature on "job lock"--people who'd otherwise retire or find another job remaining in positions they don't like only because those jobs provide healthcare coverage. The Affordable Care Act breaks those "job-locked" workers out of workplaces where they've been locked up, by weakering the link between workplace and health insurance eligibility. Such liberation of "job-locked" workers is quite different from "job-killing", wouldn't you agree?
IMO, Republicans are entitled to their own opinions about the Affordable Care Act, but they're not entitled to their own "facts". Alleged job-loss because of the Affordable Health Care Act is A LIE according to the Congressional Budget Office, just like the Republican allegation that canceling the Affordable Care Act would reduce the deficit (the CBO says repeal would ADD $230 billion to the deficit).
IMO, next thing you know, Republicans will be scoring hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit reductions from additional 'tax cuts' for the wealthy, citing Art Laffer!
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?
Fron
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/18/AR2011011800403_pf.html :
"FACT CHECK: Shaky health care job loss estimate
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press, Tuesday, January 18, 2011; 11:25 AM
WASHINGTON -- Republicans pushing to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul warn that 650,000 jobs will be lost if the law is allowed to stand. But the widely cited estimate by House GOP leaders is shaky. It's the latest creative use of statistics in the health care debate.... Republicans are calling their thumbs-down legislation the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Postponed after the mass shootings in Tucson, a House vote on the divisive issue is now expected Wednesday, although Democrats promise they'll block repeal in the Senate.
A recent report by House GOP leaders says "independent analyses have determined that the health care law will cause significant job losses for the U.S. economy." It cites the 650,000 lost jobs as Exhibit A, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office as the source of the original analysis behind that estimate. But the budget office, which referees the costs and consequences of legislation, never produced the number. What CBO actually said is that the impact of the health care law on supply and demand for labor would be small. Most of it would come from people who no longer have to work, or can downshift to less demanding employment, because insurance will be available outside the job.
"The legislation, on net, will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by a small amount--roughly half a percent--primarily by reducing the amount of labor that workers choose to supply," budget office number crunchers said in a report from last year. That's not how it got translated in the new report from Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other top Republicans. CBO "has determined that the law will reduce the 'amount of labor used in the economy by.roughly half a percent.,' an estimate that adds up to roughly 650,000 jobs lost," the GOP version said. Gone was the caveat that the impact would be small, mainly due to people working less. Added was the estimate of 650,000 jobs lost.
The Republican translation doesn't track, said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. "CBO isn't saying that there is job loss as much as they are saying that fewer people will be working," explained Fronstin. "There is a difference. People voluntarily working less isn't the same as employers cutting jobs." For example, the budget office said some people might decide to retire earlier because it would be easier to get health care, instead of waiting until they become eligible for Medicare at age 65. The law "reduces the amount of labor supplied, but it's not reducing the ability of people to find jobs, which is what the job-killing slogan is intended to convey," said economist Paul Van de Water of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The center advocates for low-income people, and supports the health care law. ..."
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