GOPs Job-Killing Whopper, Again
Republican attack ads peddle a shopworn, overblown claim about the health care law's effects.
Summary
The exaggerated Republican claim that the new health care law kills jobs was high on our list of the Whoppers of 2011. But the facts havent stopped Republicans and their allies from making the job-killing claim a major theme of their campaign 2012 TV ads:
■Five ads by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attack Democrats by repeating the Obamacare will kill jobs refrain.
■Seven other Chamber spots praise Republicans, using the same theme.
■An ad from the group Freedom Path, supporting Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, says the law is devastating to small business.
■ Republican Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama features a large stack of papers he claims are job-killing regulations and taxes in one of his spots.
All of this is health-care hooey, aimed at exploiting public concern over continuing high unemployment, with little basis in fact.
As weve said before (a few times), experts project that the law will cause a small loss of low-wage jobs and also some gains in better-paid jobs in the health care and insurance industries.
Its also expected that more workers will decide to retire earlier, or work fewer hours, when they no longer need employer-sponsored insurance and can obtain it on their own with help from federal subsidies. But that just means fewer people willing to work and it will free up jobs for those who want them. If anything, that could reduce the jobless rate.
Claims about the alleged devastation of small business are also off base. The fact is, businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the requirement to provide coverage, or pay a penalty to the government. Furthermore, some small businesses with fewer than 25 employees are already getting tax credits under the new law to help defray the cost of providing worker coverage.
The GOP ads tend to combine the mostly bogus job-killing claim with their well-worn slogan calling the law a government takeover of health care, which isnt true. The law expands the governments Medicaid system to cover some who are not currently insured, but it also greatly expands private insurance. After the law takes effect, the governments share of all spending on health care will still remain well under half, rising less than 4 percentage points, according to official projections.
Read on to our Analysis for more on the laws projected impact on jobs.
FactCheck.org : GOP’s ‘Job-Killing’ Whopper, Again