Column: Resistant to Spin

Statement

There has been a growing chorus of justified criticism of President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul in recent months, as the promises on which it was sold are shown to be untrue.

Backers of the Affordable Care Act have largely dismissed these criticisms as partisan sniping, but it is hard for them to dismiss the latest evidence that the law is harmful, as it comes from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO released a report Tuesday that said the law will add $1 trillion to the national debt and could deprive the economy of 2.5 million jobs by 2024. The latter is based on estimates that many workers receiving health-care subsidies from the health-care law will decline to take jobs whose wages would disqualify them from receiving those subsidies, while other workers will reduce their working hours in order to remain eligible for those health-care subsidies. This is a disincentive to work, built right into the law.

Further, The Wall Street Journal editorial board points out that the CBO's projections don't include the impact of the law's employer mandate. That mandate, one of several delayed by the administration, will require businesses employing 50 or more full-time workers to offer insurance or pay a $2,000 fine; many expect the mandate to result in less hiring and more workers having their hours cut.

The response from those whose political fortunes or ideology depend on the perceived success of the Affordable Care Act pushed back in two ways -- both unconvincing. The first argument, put forth by Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, is that talk of expected bad consequences of the law is partisan "fearmongering." That's hard to support when the data are coming from the nonpartisan CBO.

The other tack, even more of a stretch, is in essence that choosing not to work will set people free to do other things, such as spend more time with family.

What this happy view overlooks is that the law encourages people to contribute less to the economy in the form of goods, services and taxes, while at the same time encouraging them to suck more out of the economy, as the recipients of government subsidies.

That's a good deal if you're on the receiving end, not so good if you're the one picking up the tab.

This dynamic has dire implications for the other federal entitlement programs, too. For decades, the fiscal foundations of Social Security and Medicare have been hollowed out by the fact that fewer and fewer productive workers are paying the taxes to support more and more retirees collecting benefits. Reducing the productive work force by 2.5 million workers simply accelerates this problem.

Social Security and Medicare already are approaching insolvency. And with the nation already $17 trillion in debt, there is no cushion to fall back on.

Especially not with the CBO projecting that the Affordable Care Act alone will increase that debt by another $1 trillion.

Despite these and myriad other problems with the law, administration spinners continue to claim that the health-care law is wonderful.

And despite these strenuous assertions, a majority of Americans continue to disagree, according to the latest Gallup poll: http://bit.ly/1iq2SyP

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