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The Democrats' Phony 'Job Lock' Defense of ObamaCare
Investor's Business Daily ^ | 2/12/2014 | John Merline

Posted on 02/12/2014 7:36:20 AM PST by IBD editorial writer

Anyone following the debates over ObamaCare has been hearing a lot about "job lock" these days.

"The Affordable Care Act will enable more than 2 million workers to escape 'job-lock' — the situation where workers remain tied to employers for access to health insurance benefits," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to cite just one example.

All this job-lock talk was sparked to defend ObamaCare after the Congressional Budget Office reported the work disincentives it creates will lead to the loss of the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time jobs.

But it turns out that the Democrats' claim that millions can't escape the jobs they have solely because of health insurance is debatable. And to the extent that job lock is a problem, it's far from clear that ObamaCare will solve it.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; healthcare; irs; joblock; jobs; layoffs; obamacare
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1 posted on 02/12/2014 7:36:20 AM PST by IBD editorial writer
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To: IBD editorial writer

Congress is job-lock. FREE them.


2 posted on 02/12/2014 7:40:07 AM PST by PGalt
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To: IBD editorial writer

Well, since jobs are such odious things that are to be avoided at all costs, there’s no compelling reason to raise the minimum wage.


3 posted on 02/12/2014 7:42:27 AM PST by Arm_Bears (Shoot cops that shoot dogs.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

You’re only locked into a job if (a) you have one; and (b) there’s not another one to move to when you want to do so. Can’t believe anybody can suggest that argument with a straight face.


4 posted on 02/12/2014 7:42:48 AM PST by alancarp
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To: IBD editorial writer

White House Delays Obamacare Employer Mandate; Forces Employers to get Permission from the IRS for Layoffs

Feb 12, 2014 Lennie Jarratt

President Obama has once again decided to change a law without Congress. This time he is delaying the employer Obamacare mandate until 2016 for companies with 50-99 employees. He also lowered the percentage of companies of 100 or more to have to offer 70% of it’s employees coverage instead of 95%.

If you remember back in October 2013 with the government “shutdown” the Republicans were trying to extend the mandate and Obama and the Democrats refused to negotiate on that point. Now we have Obama extended the mandates unilaterally.

One of the other provisions now is though employers must now justify any layoffs of reduction in hours to the IRS. Yes, the IRS is being directly inserted into the hiring/firing decisions of employers.

To be eligible for the additional delay, the Obama administration says an employer “may not reduce the size of its workforce or the overall hours of service of its employees” unless it can justify those reductions to the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS is now truly a political weapon to be used at the will of the Obama administration. Obama is telling business owners you will do as I say regardless of you business needs.

http://www.championnews.net/?p=106193&utm_source=Champion+News&utm_campaign=5efb61c371-Weekly_02_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cbaa50c672-5efb61c371-32883421


5 posted on 02/12/2014 7:46:56 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: FReepers

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6 posted on 02/12/2014 7:57:51 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: IBD editorial writer

The “work sucks” meme is fundamentally dishonest. As my wife once said to me after I had a tough day, “Of course it’s work. If it were fun, they’d call it ‘play.’”

The issue isn’t that work is often unpleasant and you’d rather be doing other things. The issue should be, that since it sucks, you should have the self-respect to do what is necessary, and it’s complete assholery to shift work you should be doing onto others. I don’t want to pay for someone else’s leisure (or health insurance, or rent, or whatever).

Charity, safety net—that’s one thing. The Democrats are far beyond that.


7 posted on 02/12/2014 8:01:26 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: IBD editorial writer
"Keine arbeit macht frei!"


8 posted on 02/12/2014 8:04:00 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor)
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To: IBD editorial writer

“Job lock” ties a person down to a paycheck for the “health benefits” alone? How about eating, or having a roof over your head, or calming down a family which does not want to fall into destitution and privation?

We do not always get the job we want, right out of the box, or before perhaps several years and repeated tries. The deal with a vibrant and growing economy, is that the choice to leave a job for a better one is available. But in enforced mandates and over-regulation of the prospective employers, or the potential is sharply limited to go into business as a self-employed individual, the options grow EXTREMELY narrow, and impose the compulsory binding to a less than desirable workplace situation.

And yet, this Current Regime is determined to make the search for employment not only difficult at the beginning, it is almost as hard to change jobs as it is to land one in the first place. More than anything, their anti-business attitude determines the reality of the slackening job market and its concurrent economic downturn.

Now, it is possible to just overlook the legal requirements to engage in gainful employment, and do a little freelancing off the books, so to speak. The underground economy is just one of the responses to this excessive insertion into the minutiae of daily life. Of course, just because it IS off the books, there is no tax revenue generated by the various forms of street entrepreneurship or black market, and this is necessarily a “crime against the State”. But what the heck, if as a fringe benefit, the individual is also able to claim pauper status (while hiding accumulated wealth), it may be entirely possible to be on the dole while managing this little corner of the underground economy. Certain “protected classes” have been getting away with running this scam for years, unless they are unfortunate enough to get busted is a big, broadly disclosed manner.


9 posted on 02/12/2014 8:04:36 AM PST by alloysteel (Obamacare - Death and Taxes now available online. One-stop shopping at its best!)
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To: IBD editorial writer

It’s a job killer and they know it. The thing is, they literally consider it an “Honor Killing” for the greater good of their religion of liberalism.


10 posted on 02/12/2014 8:05:03 AM PST by BigDaddyTX (Don't Mex with Texas)
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To: IBD editorial writer

The Dims are creative enough to put a positive spin on Nazi death camps.


11 posted on 02/12/2014 8:06:06 AM PST by windsorknot
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To: alancarp

Part of the path to power for the left is the perpetuation of victimhood of “workers”.

That way they can “ride to the rescue”.


12 posted on 02/12/2014 8:06:47 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: IBD editorial writer

Obama: Liberating Americans from the tyranny of employment and into the freedom of welfare


13 posted on 02/12/2014 8:19:22 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: alancarp

They know they’re BSing, saying follow your dreams (it takes time to earn a living doing this - if ever).

Well get a subsidy, they say...but if 2.5 million lose their jobs due to obamacare, how will they afford even subsidized premiums?

The answer is, they won’t. This scheme was doomed while on paper - now it’s collapsed in the real world.


14 posted on 02/12/2014 8:30:17 AM PST by Heart of Georgia
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To: alancarp
anybody can suggest that argument with a straight face

They did on the local news the other night. Approximately, the anchor perkily chiped that "2.5 Million people losing their jobs is a *good* thing".

Mrs WBill occasionally makes fun of me arguing with the TV set, but that line even made her squawk. Wonder how dumb these people think we are?

15 posted on 02/12/2014 8:32:59 AM PST by wbill
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To: IBD editorial writer

Democrats have been working on the bigger/worse ‘job lock’ for a while. Once they can get welfare, ebt, UI, and other programs paying enough will be able to escape all causes of ‘job lock’ - the primary one being salary/wages for most of us.

It really sucks that so many of us have to work all day rather than doing what our hearts desire. I myself want to be a performance artist - I will sit on a comfortable couch all day, watching TV and eating chips and drinking beer (people can watch me on a webcam so it is art). If I didn’t have ‘job lock’ I’d have time to think up a title and meaning for my “art” and maybe even be able to get a government grant (someone has to pay for the chips & beer)


16 posted on 02/12/2014 8:59:13 AM PST by LostPassword
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To: GeronL

Pelosi: Extending Unemployment Benefits Would Create ‘600,000 Jobs’
December 15, 2011
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/pelosi-extending-unemployment-benefits-would-create-600000-jobs

Lowering the bar is SOP when trying to justify failed policy.Democrats have made it an art form.


17 posted on 02/12/2014 9:05:43 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad and lived with his parents .)
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To: IBD editorial writer
Damn. The Democrats are all about cheating the system.

How about not getting knocked up, how about finishing school, and learning a trade or going to college? And, oh by the way, you'll have to work in some crappy jobs along the way. THAT IS LIFE.

Instead, everything that the Democrats propose has the goal to cheat the system. Probably the same system that they created! And the system that the rest of us law abiding tax payers take seriously.

Immigration is another perfect example. Allow people who have cheated the system, broken the laws, a free pass to citizenship while those waiting in line are SOL.

Voter id is another example. There will be cheating without voter ids.

Democrats = cheaters.

Apparently, cheaters do prosper.

18 posted on 02/12/2014 9:06:34 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: TurboZamboni

Now jobs are a bad thing altogether.


19 posted on 02/12/2014 9:06:59 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: IBD editorial writer

Lack of available jobs creates job lock, and dear leader and his cronies have contributed plenty to that.


20 posted on 02/14/2014 5:06:45 AM PST by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be earned and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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