Another One Bites The Dust

A favorite claim of the Obama-haters is that Obama care will cost jobs, by forcing employers to reduce worker hours in order to avoid providing benefits. It is, of course, parroted all across right-wing media.

Comes now a report (from a "left-leaning" research institute) that contradicts the trope, based on, you know, facts:

Opponents of Obamacare say it will kill jobs, and they specifically say provisions forcing employers to offer health insurance to workers will encourage smaller businesses to cut jobs and cut hours. But a new report finds that, if anything, fewer people are working part-time this year than the year before.

The report, from the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, says data show companies have not been cutting hours in anticipation of the law. It contradicts business owners who say they’ve already started cutting back. CEPR researchers found that just 1 million workers, roughly 0.6 percent of the labor force, work between 26-29 hours a week. Two-thirds of them said they did so by choice, not because they were forced to.

I can't judge the accuracy, but it's interesting. It's also evidently the case that public pressure, i.e., the bottom line) has influence as well: the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster backtracked on their plan to do the dirty, after public outcry and its effect on profit projections. (The above article mentions that, as well.)

As I'm writing for my next newspaper column, the fact that Obamacare seems to be working in those states following its requirements, suggests that maybe the honorable and patriotic thing to do would be to let it play out, see how it's going, and fix problems as they arise. As opposed to the teabaggR attempts to kill the baby in its crib.