There is an obvious omission from all the previews of the President’s upcoming speech on jobs: Obamacare.
Obamacare is perhaps the most damaging of the Administration’s policies that are impeding the country’s recovery. At a time when there should be a focus on cutting spending, reducing regulation, and lowering taxes, Obamacare does the complete opposite. It spends more, imposes costly new mandates and regulations, and raises taxes on individuals and businesses. This is no way to get the economy up and running again.
More Spending. While proponents argue that Obamacare reduces the deficit, those assertions are made based on typical Washington smoke-and-mirrors accounting gimmicks. The harsh reality is that Obamacare spends $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years to expand an already struggling Medicaid program ($627 billion) and create a costly new subsidy entitlement ($777 billion).
Costly Mandates and Regulations. Obamacare imposes a penalty on employers with over 50 employees that do not offer government-qualified health insurance. This provision will hurt job creation, especially in the small business sector, where the economic incentive will be to stay under 50 employees. Moreover, since the health care law was written in such haste, many of the specifics await regulatory instructions, including what qualifies as a government-approved plan, leaving businesses with greater economic uncertainty.
Higher Taxes. Obamacare imposes nearly $500 billion in new taxes on individuals and businesses over the next 10 years. They include a 2.3percent excise tax on medical devices, $28 billion in new “fees” on brand name drug manufacturers, a new tax on investment income for couples earning over $250,000 a year, and annual premium taxes on health insurance policies that start at $8 billion in 2014, grow to $14.3 billion in 2018, and will continue to escalate based on premium growth (that is, faster than general inflation) every year thereafter. Raising taxes in this economy is no way to build job growth.
Indeed, a just released economic analysis of the Obamacare excise tax on medical devices concludes, “Under reasonable assumptions, the tax could result in job losses in excess of 43,000.” Furthermore, businesses of all kinds that currently offer their workers health insurance have already begun to calculate the costs of the new health care law, and the future does not look good for these job creators.
Nancy Pelosi was right when she said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” As more individuals and businesses learn about the law, the less there is to like it about it. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to understand that this health care law is not a prescription for curing an ailing economy.
When it comes to fixing the economy, the President should start with “Do no harm.” But to do that, he would have to admit that Obamacare was a mistake.
#1 repeal obamacare!!! YES! obamacare is NOT HEALTH CARE and is proven to be horrendous, hideous corruption of costs, mandates and regulations!
#2 discipline government members to their proper role!!
After today's federal appeals court ruling that the individual mandate is constitutional, I have to question the validity of perverted interpretations about the commerce clause. The nullification folks are making far more sense these days. Why do we even listen to big government social progressive hogwash from the bench. The supreme court better back states' sovereignty on this one. The survival of our country greatly depends on their upholding federalism as designed by our founders. Otherwise, be prepared for American despotism gone wild.
Twenty-seven states contend that Obama care is unconstitutional and that Congress overstepped its Constitutional authority in passing the healthcare law. With Obama care our legacy to our descendants will be the destruction of their protections and rights guaranteed by our Constitution. And, they will be paying for this abomination for generations to come. Let's do right by our children and repeal Obama care.
Wow, first of all a poll asking approx. 1000 to 2000 people how do they feel about the new healthcare law does not!, and I repeat does not speak for over 300,000.000 people. I don't like the new healthcare law simply becuase it doesn't go far enough!. Single payer system is the best option! Anyone who would suggest having nothing in place or or even worst suggesting that the Ryan proposal is a better option is complete ignorant, and lack basic intelligence. The current healthcare system in this country,and the beneficiaries of such policies are guilty of crimes against humanity!
Unfortunately most people involved in or commenting about have no idea in the world about healthcare.
If you really want to comment then spend 40 years in the field or else your comments are worthless.
Suggest you comment about those things you know something about or just shut up.
Diogenes
This article pulls these numbers out of its ass and makes broad, misleading assumptions about the healthcare reform's provisions. Here's a more reliable source saying what repealing the Affordable Care Act will do (spoiler alert: it will increase net federal deficit by $109 billion):
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43471