Another Attempt to Fear-Monger

Like so many arguments from the far right, these hold not a drop of water.  Rather, they’re based on an incorrect interpretation of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.

The CBO actually said this: the total number of hours worked will decrease under Obamacare, by roughly 1.5 percent to 2 percent, between 2017 and 2024.  That’s roughly equivalent to 2.5 million jobs. But the report never said or even speculated that 2.5 million jobs will be erased.  Rather, it noted that many folks may simply choose to work fewer hours because of the ACA.  Some economists have even speculated that jobs will be created in order to take up the resultant slack.

If you’ve got a lot of spare time and are into economy-speak, you can read the full CBO report here.  But suffice it to say that the document makes no predictions so dire as some on the right would have us believe.

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Michele Petrovsky is the Webmaster at Tools4Change, Author of “Cathedral or Bazaar?  Fix Higher Education – Teach by the Seat of Your Pants ,”  “Donkey Dharma,” and “Quick Guide to Linux.” Petrovsky resides in Glen Mills, Pa.

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