“Whatever It Takes” to Create Jobs? How about Repealing Obamacare…?
In his radio address this weekend, the President claimed that in 2012 he would do “whatever it takes to move this economy forward.” If that’s the case, there are numerous reasons why he would want to repeal Obamacare:
- John Stossel recently talked with several business executives, all of whom discussed the uncertainties associated with Obamacare. For instance, the CEO of Best Buy said “if I went to the deepest specialist in the industry, he can’t tell me what it’s actually going to cost, let alone what I’m going to be responsible for.” And a former CEO noted that “you don’t really know what the cost [of Obamacare will be] because it’s designed to fail,” by giving companies incentives to dump their employee benefit plans. As a result, these and other executives are holding off on hiring due to the unknown costs of Obamacare.
- Analysts at UBS have stated that Obamacare is “arguably the biggest impediment to hiring, particularly hiring of less skilled workers.”
- The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has “frequently heard strong comments to the effect of ‘my company won’t hire a single additional worker until we know what health insurance costs are going to be.’”
- The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obamacare will reduce the labor supply by about 800,000 thanks to the law’s perverse incentives, which according to CBO “will effectively increase marginal tax rates,” thereby discouraging work.
The growing consensus regarding the harmful effects of Obamacare on the American economy – where unemployment is STILL above the 8 percent mark the Administration promised it would never hit – leads one to ask: Is the President most interested in creating jobs, or is he interested in defending his unpopular 2700-page health care law, even as it prevents the economy from moving forward?