15 Feb 2014 Liberals Have Accepted that ObamaCare Will Increase the Deficit; The CBO Shows Economic Consequences of ObamaCare Exceed its Budget Savings

Liberals Celebrating ObamaCare’s Reduction of Work Hours Must Accept that Reduced Hours Will Result in Huge Tax Losses

Washington, D.C. – “There is no way around it for the political left. If they celebrate that ObamaCare induces employees to work less hours, then they have to accept that ObamaCare increases the deficit,” says Dr. David Hogberg, health care expert and author of an article in today’s Washington Examiner, “Face it, Liberals: ObamaCare will increase the federal deficit.”

Dr. Hogberg, senior fellow for health care policy at the National Center For Public Policy Research, is available to offer comments for reporters and radio hosts on the deficit impact and other aspects of ObamaCare.

Last week the Congressional Budget Office released a report showing that ObamaCare would reduce the hours employees worked by up to 2.5 million by 2024 because of the law’s expansion of Medicaid and exchange subsidies. Dr. Hogberg compared the impact that would have on tax revenue to the savings ObamaCare is supposed to generate for the federal budget.

“The CBO shows that the decline in work hours contributes to a deterioration of income and FICA taxes of nearly $1 trillion from 2013-2022,” he said. “That easily exceeds the $109 billion in deficit reduction a previous CBO analysis said ObamaCare is supposed to generate during that same period.”

Many liberal pundits, including Paul Krugman, E.J. Dionne, Steve Benen, Michael Kiltzik and Jonathan Cohn, celebrated the reduction in work hours as a beneficial effect of ObamaCare. Hogberg notes that if these pundits celebrate the fact that some employees will work fewer hours, they also have to accept that these employees will also earn less income and pay fewer income and FICA taxes.

“One follows the other,” Hogberg says, “And since that lost revenue exceeds whatever deficit reduction ObamaCare achieves, liberals must accept that ObamaCare increases the deficit. Even if they don’t admit it out loud.”

The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors.

Contributions are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

-3