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Democrats Aren’t Working: ObamaCare Is A Badge of Dishonor

September 5, 2012

Democrats Aren’t Working: ObamaCare Is A Badge of Dishonor

As Democrats Celebrate ObamaCare, Working Families Are Suffering Under Rising Healthcare Costs, $700 Billion in Medicare Cuts and $1 Trillion in Tax Hikes 

  • Democrats kicked off their 2012 convention with an unexpected star: ObamaCare. In speech after speech, Democrats doubled down on their disastrous government healthcare takeover and even claimed that it’s a “badge of honor.”

  • But ObamaCare is nothing to celebrate for the many working families who are suffering under ObamaCare’s rising premiums, its cuts to Medicare and its job-destroying trillion dollar tax hike.

  • Top Democrats may claim their government healthcare takeover is a “badge of honor,” but that “honor” came at a huge political price for House Democrats in 2010, a price that many still regret.

Democrats kicked off their 2012 convention with an unexpected star: ObamaCare. In speech after speech, Democrats doubled down on their disastrous government healthcare takeover and even claimed that it’s a “badge of honor”:

OBAMA HHS SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: “FOR US DEMOCRATS, OBAMACARE IS A BADGE OF HONOR”: (Sam Baker, “Sebelius: ‘ObamaCare is a Badge of Honor,’” The Hill, 9/5/2012)

19 SPEAKERS SPENT TIME “REAFFIRMING THE VIRTUES” OF OBAMACARE: (Sam Stein, “DNC 2012: ObamaCare Dominates Policy Discussion,” The Huffington Post, 9/4/2012)

“THE NIGHT DEMOCRATS RECLAIMED ‘OBAMACARE’”: (Ezra Klein, “The Night Democrats Reclaimed ‘ObamaCare,’” The Washington Post, 9/4/2012)

“DEMOCRATS TALKED ABOUT OBAMACARE. A LOT”:(Ezra Klein, “The Night Democrats Reclaimed ‘ObamaCare,’” The Washington Post, 9/4/2012)

But ObamaCare is nothing to celebrate for the many working families who are suffering under ObamaCare’s rising premiums, its cuts to Medicare and its job-destroying trillion dollar tax hike:

GROSS COST OF OBAMACARE: $1.68 TRILLION: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,”Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012)

$1 TRILLION IN OBAMACARE TAX HIKES OVER 2013-2022: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,” Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012, p.6)

DEMOCRATS CUT MORE THAN $700 BILLION FROM MEDICARE TO PAY FOR OBAMACARE:(Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,”Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012)

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: OBAMACARE TO DESTROY 800,000 JOBS: QUESTION: “…that means that in your estimation, the health care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in 2021; is that correct?” DOUGLAS ELMENDORF, CBO Director: “Yes.” (Remarks from Douglas Elmendorf, House Budget Committee Hearing, 2/10/2011)

UBS RESEARCH: OBAMACARE IS “ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO HIRING”: “Arguably the biggest impediment to hiring (particularly hiring of less skilled workers) is healthcare reform… By raising the cost of labor, healthcare reform systematically discourages hiring, especially of low-wage workers whose mandated benefits are high relative to their wages.” (“Great Suppression II,” UBS Research, Pgs.1, 5, 9/19/2011) 

STUDY: HEALTHCARE COSTS TO RISE 6.2% IN 2012: “Employers anticipate total health care costs will reach $11,664 per active employee in 2012, up from $10,982 in 2011 — a 6.2% increase in total costs over the period.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,” 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)

RISING PREMIUMS FOR EMPLOYEES: “Employees, on average, paid 23.0% of total premium costs in 2011 and are expected to pay 23.7% in 2012, as companies take steps to control their costs.  In paycheck deductions, this translated into an average employee contribution of $2,529 to premiums in 2011, which is expected to rise to $2,764 in 2012 — a 9.3% increase in one year.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,” 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)

FAMILY HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS ROSE 9% IN 2011, WITH OBAMACARE PLAYING A ROLE:(Julie Appleby, “Cost of Employer Insurance Plans Surge in 2011,” Kaiser Health News, 9/27/2011)

Top Democrats may claim their government healthcare takeover is a “badge of honor,” but that “honor” came at a huge political price for House Democrats in 2010, a price that many still regret:

STUDY: OBAMACARE COST DEMOCRATS THE HOUSE IN 2010:  (Aaron Blake, “Study Shows Health Care Bill May Have Cost Democrats the House,” The Washington Post, 3/9/2012)

WHAT IF YOU HELD A PARTY FOR OBAMACARE, AND NO VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS CAME?: “Thursday in the Capitol, the House’s top three Dems — Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn — celebrated the law’s two-year anniversary among a room full of friendly visitors of all ages and backgrounds. … Despite all the benefits that their constituents will enjoy, Democrats in vulnerable or swing districts have steered clear of these events and are careful not to be seen touting their votes for the Affordable Care Act. Part of this is structural: Most vulnerable House Democratic supporters of the health care law were wiped out in the 2010 midterm.” (Shahil Kapur, “Health Care Law Still a Liability for Vulnerable Dems,” TPMDC, 3/22/2012)

DEMOCRAT WHIP STENY HOYER ADMITTED OBAMCARE WAS A “LIABILITY” IN 2010:  (Aaron Blake, “Study Shows Health Care Bill May Have Cost Democrats the House,” The Washington Post, 3/9/2012)

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D-MA): “WE PAID A TERRIBLE PRICE FOR HEALTHCARE”: (Jonathan Miller, “Barney Frank: Obama Made ‘Mistake’ With Health Care Push,” National Journal, 4/16/2012)

2010: “PELOSI: LAWMAKERS SHOULD SACRIFICE THEIR JOBS FOR HEALTHCARE”: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue’s massive role in this election year. … ‘We’re not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress,’ she said. ‘We’re here to do the job for the American people.'” (“Pelosi: Lawmakers Should Sacrifice Their Jobs for Healthcare,” Associated Press, 2/28/2010)

MOVE OF OLDER VOTERS FROM DEMS TO REPUBLICANS “MOST DRAMATIC SWING OF ANY AGE GROUP” IN 2010 ELECTION: “In an election marked by dramatic defections from the Democratic Party, older voters swung hardest, seemingly threatened by President Barack Obama’s mantra of change.

“Voters over 65 favored Republicans last week by a 21-point margin after flirting with Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections and favoring John McCain by a relatively narrow 8-point margin in 2008.

“Concerned by changes to Medicare and compelled by a Republican Party that promised a return to America’s glory days, seniors played a crucial — and often understated — role in races across the country. They were unswayed by ubiquitous Democratic warnings about Republican changes to Social Security. And they put a series of campaigns out of reach for Democrats.” (Byron Tau, “Seniors fled Democrats in midterms,” Politico, 11/07/2010)

DEMOCRATS’ CUTS TO MEDICARE COST THEM POLITICALLY: “The shift in older voters was the most dramatic swing of any age group, George Mason political scientist Michael McDonald said, and it gave the GOP the ‘magnitude’ of its victory. …

“Senior voters seemed motivated by concerns about the health care law and punished incumbent Democrats accordingly. The bill cut $500 billion from Medicare programs, a wash at best for older citizens. And Democrats largely failed to campaign successfully on aspects of the law targeted to benefit seniors, like closing the ‘doughnut hole’ in Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage.” (Byron Tau, “Seniors fled Democrats in midterms,” Politico, 11/07/2010)

Democrats Aren’t Working: ObamaCare Is A Badge of Dishonor http://ow.ly/du9z5#iwantrepeal