The Republican Party found a new reason to attack the White House last week with the Congressional Budget Office’s report about the economic impact of the Affordable Care Act. The reduction in work hours according to the report equaled 2,5000,000 full time jobs. Conservatives claim the report proves Obamacare is a job killer and real full time jobs will disappear from the United States workforce. The CBO and Democrats insist this is not true.
What the report really says according to the CBO, is over time there will be a reduction in hours worked that equals 2.5 million full time jobs in the United States. Americans working a second job, or a job they only have for the benefits can consider working less or quitting that job, thanks to the ACA providing insurance coverage for hard working Americans who can’t afford it without help from an employer gracious enough to offer coverage. Obamacare will save Americans so much money, they won’t have to work sixty, seventy or even eighty hour work weeks just to meet living expenses. Less time at work means more freedom to do other things, like having a parent available to meet their children when they get home from school.
It’s been long enough for many Americans to not remember a time when families could afford to have a parent in the house. Women’s Lib demanded women pursue things like careers because being an unpaid housekeeper was slavery to a man, but was that the real reason so many women chose to work outside of the home in the 80’s? While pundits cried in horror about moms leaving their children at daycare, or who is keeping the man’s castle clean and providing a hot home-cooked meal as soon as he walked in the door, one question no one bothered to ask is why American homes need two full time incomes?
In the early 1980’s the cost of living began to rise sharply while wages stagnated. Women weren’t leaving the home for jobs to abandon their husbands to a Hungry Man dinner in an empty house. The Reagan era saw a significant rise in the cost of living, while job growth and wages flat lined in comparison. One income was no longer sufficient to maintain a family household. This trend continued through the decades that followed. By the beginning of the 21st Century when the second President Bush told us invading Iraq would be a long, expensive war many Americans were working a full time job, a second job to make extra money and still struggling to pay medical bills without losing their homes. In 2008 too many Americans had already lost that battle.
People living in fear of losing everything are people easy to control. The Affordable Care ACT gives Americans the freedom to work less and still have health care coverage for their families. Why would anyone not want that? Having freedom is something Americans should never be afraid of.
Edited/Published by: SB
