Friday, January 21, 2011

PolitiFact: Health Care is NOT a "Job Killer," Even Though it Will Cost 750,000 Jobs

PolitiFact touts itself as a "non-partisan" and objective truth-checker.  But one has to wonder how they can even bother saying that when they are ridiculously partisan.

Take their new article:  The health care law a "job killer"? The evidence falls short.  PolitiFact took a quote from Eric Cantor, in which he stated ObamaCare is a job killer, and rated it "false."  Nancy Pelosi was so ecstatic over the news that she quickly tweeted in liberal bliss:
However, PolitiFact's "facts" don't hold up.  In fact, the article itself falls apart by simply reading it, as it is incredibly self-contradictory.

The article quickly quotes a press release by the CBO.  PolitiFact quickly mocks Republicans for leaving out "facts."  Here now is the entire first paragraph of the CBO report, quoted by PolitiFact (emphasis mine):

"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the legislation, on net, will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by a small amount—roughly half a percent—primarily by reducing the amount of labor that workers choose to supply. That net effect reflects changes in incentives in the labor market that operate in both directions: Some provisions of the legislation will discourage people from working more hours or entering the workforce, and other provisions will encourage them to work more. Moreover, many people will be unaffected by those provisions and will face the same incentives regarding work as they do under current law."

Oh, well, half a percent, that can't be so bad, right?  That can't be that many jobs, right?  Well, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 150,000,000 Americans are in the labor force.  That means, with ObamaCare in place, the United States will lose 750,000 jobs.
Cantor
But it's not like our economy is struggling right now, right?  It's not like it would hurt our economy if it instantly lost 750,000 jobs, right?  Right?  It must be nice for Democrats to have lap dogs skewing numbers for them.

Actually, PolitiFact took exception to the number of jobs Republicans have said the US would lose, 650,000.  In reality, we will lose 100,000 more jobs.  As you can probably tell, PolitiFact is completely full of it.

Near the end of their article, PolitiFact states:  "To be clear, the health care law will cost some employers money, particularly large ones. The CBO says that  fines imposed on large employers will affect low-wage workers the most. But it also says the effect will be somewhat limited."

I guess the geniuses over at PolitiFact don't care about the little person so long as the damage is "limited."  They are fine towing the Democratic line.  And they assume that no one will notice 750,000 jobs vanishing.  But I know who will notice: the people losing their livelihoods.

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3 comments:

  1. PolitiFact simply does not care about the 750,000 people who will lose their jobs, so long as they can tow the Democratic line

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  2. Uhh, you just repeated the republican spin on the CBO report, the exact spin that the politifact article contests later on in their analysis...which you don't touch on at all. This blog isn't really a rebuttal of politifact's analysis, but a restating of the exact spin they're debunking. Are you consciously misleading people by taking snippets like this and not even touching the meat of their argument, or are you just that bad at critical thinking? Or did you only read the first paragraph of politifact's article?

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  3. @ Anonymous

    That paragraph wasn't the first paragraph. In fact, PolitiFact complained that Republicans didn't use the whole paragraph (which is in its entirety above). Why don't you go back and drink your kool-aid while the adults actually have a discussion using facts.

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