Eric Cantor Dissembles On Jobs and Healthcare

by Sandi Behrns

A series of tweets from “The Official Twitter feed for Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Press Office”, @CantorPress, would have us all believe that the Congressional Budget Office today declared that the Affordable Care Act will cost our nation 800,000 jobs. Clearly, this proves that “Obamacare” kills jobs…

The problem with this stunning development is that while it is being interpreted by the #tcot folks on Twitter that @CantorPress addresses as proof that “Obamacare” will further damage our economy and raise unemployment, that is not in fact the case. The truth is in the very first paragraph of the Politico story cited.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told the House Budget Committee on Thursday that the health care law will reduce employment by 0.5 percent by 2021 because some people will no longer have to work just to afford health insurance.

Two points: 1) This is a 10-year projection, and 2) we are talking about people voluntarily leaving the workforce because they no longer have to work. It shouldn’t take a degree in Economics to understand that would actually lower unemployment and be a boost to the economy. Am I saying Eric Cantor is too uninformed to know that? No, but he seems to believe his constituents are.

By: Sandi Behrns

Sandi Behrns is a noted policy nerd, new media & web developer, and consultant to progressive organizations and campaigns. She is a senior contributor to Liberaland, and the Executive Editor of Progressive Congress News.