Scathing CBO Scorecard on Obamacare, Economy

Remember when Obamacare was to create 400k jobs immediately? Before the President signed his health care bill into law, Democrats claimed the proposal would create jobs. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously declared: “So this bill is not only about the health security of America, it’s about jobs. In its life it will create four million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.

In this latest report, CBO confirmed that Obamacare’s flawed policy disincentives are expected to drive 2.5 million people out of the workforce by 2024. That is nearly triple the impact CBO had estimated in 2010. Democrats’ health care law forces Americans to make a perverse choice between whether they want to work more, earn higher wages, but potentially lose generous government subsidies; or work less, earn lower salaries, and retain government benefits.

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Fewer People in Jobs, Higher Debt

Samuel Adams

by Sam Adams MMIV: Last week the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its 2014 Budget and Economic Outlook. From Obamacare to the unrestrained national debt, this report serves as a warning of the damage the President’s policies are doing to our country.

CBO Confirms Obamacare Discourages Work
Before the President signed his health care bill into law, Democrats claimed the proposal would create jobs. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi infamously declared: “So this bill is not only about the health security of America, it’s about jobs. In its life it will create four million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

In this latest report, CBO confirmed that Obamacare’s flawed policy disincentives are expected to drive 2.5 million people out of the workforce by 2024. That is nearly triple the impact CBO had estimated in 2010. Democrats’ health care law forces Americans to make a perverse choice between whether they want to work more, earn higher wages, but potentially lose generous government subsidies; or work less, earn lower salaries, and retain government benefits.
“[P]roviding heavily subsidized health-insurance to people … creates a disincentive for people to work.” – Doug Elmendorf, CBO director, 2/5/14While Obamacare’s impact on the labor force garnered significant news attention, the CBO report contains more bad news:

• 1 percent: The amount CBO predicts the health care law will reduce aggregate labor compensation – hitting lower wage workers hardest.
• 1.5 million: The number of people, of the roughly five million whose health insurance plans have been cancelled in the individual and small group markets, who are expected to renew their non-Obamacare compliant policies in 2014.
• 7 million: The number of people who will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance by 2024.
• 13 million: The number of people who will be locked into a broken and failing Medicaid program by 2024.
• 31 million: The number of people who will remain uninsured in 2024. CBO projects Obamacare will not reduce the number of uninsured below 30 million people over the next decade.
• $52 billion: The total amount, over 10 years, that Obamacare taxes the uninsured, through the individual mandate tax.
• $151 billion: The total, over 10 years, that Obamacare taxes employers that do not offer health insurance to their workers, through the employer mandate tax.

Return of Trillion Dollar Deficits
CBO projects that deficits will decrease in 2014 (to $514 billion) and 2015 (to $478 billion) – still larger deficits than any previous Administration – before increasing every year after 2015. The report estimates that deficits in 2022, 2023, and 2024 will all be greater than $1 trillion. In comparison, last year’s estimate did not expect any deficits over $1 trillion.

By the end of his second term, President Obama will have seen the national debt increase by about $8.5 trillion. It will be nearly $27.2 trillion by 2024. Publicly held debt as a percentage of GDP at its lowest point over the next 10 years – 72.3 percent in 2017 – is still higher than any other year since 1950.

Mandatory spending is at the heart of our overspending crisis, and Democrats don’t want to face facts. Over the next 10 years, total mandatory spending increases by 77 percent over 10 years versus the 2014 estimated level -- including a 78 percent increase in Social Security outlays; an 80 percent increase in Medicare; and a 93 percent increase in Medicaid.

The biggest increase in spending is net interest – the cost of servicing our debt. CBO assumes that the interest rate on treasuries will rise eventually to near the historical average. Interest spending is estimated to go up by 278 percent over the next decade -- from $233 billion in 2014 to $880 billion in 2024. By 2021, interest costs will exceed the entire national defense budget.

CBO also revised its estimates for GDP growth over the next few years. It now expects GDP to grow by barely three percent this year – down slightly from what it expected in its 2013 report. Growth drops off more significantly in the next three years, never reaching 3.5 percent. These revised estimates are far more pessimistic than CBO’s expectations just a year ago.

Incredibly, Washington Democrats have argued that CBO’s report proves the health care law will save people from being “trapped in a job.” The bottom line is that 2.5 million people will not be working by 2024 due to the Democrats’ health care law. Even liberal pundits have been forced to admit that Obamacare is “a drag on economic growth … as more people decide government handouts are more attractive than working more and paying higher taxes.”

The President and Washington Democrats should be doing everything possible to spur job creation. Instead they stubbornly continue to implement a health care law that threatens the economy, increases costs, and limits job growth.
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Sam Adams MMIV is the pen name for un-named beltway sources. While receiving information from many sources, this Sam's words sometimes need to be credited. Thanks to all the Adams patriots who speak up for America.

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