Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf testified before the House Budget Committee on Thursday and made a shocking admission – he expects ObamaCare to wipe out an estimated 800,000 jobs. That’s equal to every single job in the states of Delaware and South Dakota.
Here are excerpts from the exchange between Elmendorf and Republican Boy Genius Paul Ryan:
Chairman [Paul] Ryan: “[I]t’s been argued…that the new health care law will create jobs and increase labor force participation. But if I recall from your analysis, it was quite the opposite. Is that not the case?”
Director [Douglas] Elmendorf : “Yes.”…Rep. [John] Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, we’ll — and Dr. Elmendorf — and we’ll continue this conversation right now. First on health care, before I get to — before I get to broader issues, you just mentioned that you believe — or that in your estimate, that the health care law would reduce the labor used in the economy by about 1/2 of 1 percent, given that, I believe you say, there’s 160 million full-time people working in ’20-’21. That means that, in your estimation, the health care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in ’20-’21. Is that correct?
Director Elmendorf: Yes. The way I would put it is that we do estimate, as you said, that…employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade. Half a percent of that is 800,000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jskjci1ZL9Q
H/T: WeeklyStandard.com
