http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2011/07/22/obamacare-the-job-destroyer/
posted at 9:26 am on July 22, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
President Obama said last week that the public is not paying close attention to the debt crisis, adding:
They shouldn’t. They’re worrying about their family, they’re worrying about their jobs, they’re worrying about their neighborhood. They’ve got a lot of other things on their plate. We’re paid to worry about it.
The tenor of his comment was typically condescending (the masses are too stupid to know what’s going on in the government), but his observation is right for a change. Several recent polls show that Americans are more concerned about jobs—or, more precisely, the lack thereof—than they are about raising the debt limit.
And justifiably so. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveal that the percentage of Americans who are employed has decreased since the since the official end of the recession in June 2009. Moreover, Americans receiving paychecks are now earning less than they were during the recession.
It’s a curious development, to be sure. An analysis by James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation suggests that the main cause of the slowdown is a piece of legislation the president affixed his signature to. No, it’s not the $8 billion package. The culprit, rather, is ObamaCare, which was signed into law on March 23, 2010. (h/t Jeffrey Anderson, Weekly Standard)
Sherk identifies three ways in which the health care reform law has stultified hiring:
Businesses with fewer than 50 workers have a strong incentive to maintain this size, which allows them to avoid the mandate to provide government-approved health coverage or face a penalty;
Businesses with more than 50 workers will see their costs for health coverage rise—they must purchase more expensive government-approved insurance or pay a penalty; and
Employers face considerable uncertainty about what constitutes qualifying health coverage and what it will cost. They also do not know what the health care market or their health care costs will look like in four years. This makes planning for the future difficult.
In support of the last bullet point, Sherk cites a recent survey in which 33% of business owners said that the health care law was either their greatest or second-greatest obstacle to new hiring. He also quotes Dennis Lockhart, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, as claiming:
(Article does continue. Zim.)
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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