More hypocrisy from teabaggRs:
Republicans and conservative wonks have long supported de-linking health insurance from employment in order to give workers more economic freedom. But now they're attacking Obamacare for ... doing just that.
Republicans seized on a Congressional Budget Office report Tuesday to attack Obamacare for "destroying" or "costing" jobs. The reality wasn't so simple; in fact, CBO didn't project any pink slips; it said some 2 million workers would voluntarily exit the full-time labor force (over a decade) because Obamacare will make them less dependent on their employer for health insurance. ...
It has been an important conservative goal -- before and after the Obamacare debate poisoned intra-GOP politics -- to give workers more flexibility and freedom to retain health insurance if they switch jobs or quit. Indeed, existing health care alternatives by conservatives would have similar effects on workers...
... Obamacare seeks to fix this problem by providing financial assistance to get coverage and prohibits insurance companies from shutting out sick people. The Heritage Foundation and various prominent Republicans supported this approach during the 1990s and 2000s, but abandoned it once Democrats took it up. And so conservatives set about proposing new ways of disentangling health insurance and employment, such as unwinding the tax exclusion for job-based coverage, offering individuals a tax credit to buy insurance and expanding Health Savings Accounts.
The most recent of these proposals was put forward recently by Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch (UT), Tom Coburn (OK) and Richard Burr (NC). ... The goal is similar to that of Obamacare, and portends similar behavioral consequences.
When will the Foxolimbeckified ever wake up? When, oh when?
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