The ObamaCare Bomb Is About to Explode …

WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL - A mere three weeks remain before the Obamacare exchanges open for business. The likely result will be the closing doors on Main Street, as shopkeepers and entrepreneurs shut down, unable to make ends meet. It’s clear that the wounded economy can’t cope with the exploding costs ahead.

Ohio announced that premiums would rise in the individual market by an average of 88 percent next year. Premiums will rise 72 percent in Indiana, 125 percent in Wisconsin. Even California, with its relatively robust individual market, is bracing for increases of 66 percent.

The Obamacare train wreck bearing down on us is about far more than higher costs. A study by University of Chicago economist Casey B. Mulligan documents the perverse Obamacare incentives that encourage Americans to become much less productive. He estimates that the legislation acts as a payroll tax increase for about half the working, non-elderly population earning an average weekly wage. Obamacare will turn those who work hard into losers, declaring part-timers the winners.

A typical family of four with an income of up to $94,200 will get a generous subsidy for health insurance if the head of the house drops out of full-time work and becomes a part-timer. It’s an implicit payroll tax increase of almost 5 percent. The net result is a reduction in productivity throughout the economy.

Imposing a large new tax will persuade many that long hours are for suckers. Many will decide that it isn’t worth the effort and drop out of the work force. Why work full-time to see the money taxed away? Better to work fewer hours and keep the same after-tax income.

Obamacare imposes additional pressure on bosses to move employees to part-time status to avoid large penalties by the IRS. Businesses and some public-sector employers have begun slashing their employees’ hours already.

Via: Washington Times

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NY Times Called Bush’s 2.7% GDP a ‘Letdown,’ But Obama’s Lower GDP a ‘Steady Improvement’

The leftist bias of the New York Times beautifully encapsulated in seven words used about a week before two presidential elections. Headline over Saturday’s editorial on the third quarter GDP creeping up to 2.0 percent under Democrat Barack Obama: “Slow but Steady Improvement.” Headline twenty years ago (October 29, 1992) when Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush was in the White House and the third quarter GDP nearly doubled to 2.7 percent: “Gross National Letdown.”

FNC’s Bret Baier noted the contrasting spins, speculating in his Tuesday night “Grapevine” segment: “The New York Times seems to be changing with the time when it comes to interpreting the country’s economic outlook.”

He then read from the portions of the two editorials which were highlighted in Monday’s “Best of the Web Today,” where James Taranto headlined his item: “Two Papers in One!”

From the New York Times editorial, “Gross National Letdown,” of Thursday October 29, 1992:

President Bush smiled when he learned this week that economic growth during the third quarter reached a surprising 2.7 percent, almost twice the previous rate. But his smile shouldn’t be broad. The new figure almost certainly exaggerates the health of the economy, which continues to creep along at a painfully slow pace. Even the 2.7 figure is half the normal rate of recovery and not enough to bring down unemployment.

New York Times editorial, “Slow but Steady Improvement,” from Saturday October 27, 2012:

The slow pace of the nation’s economic recovery has picked up a bit lately. In the third quarter, the economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent, beating expectations and the dismal 1.3 percent growth in the second quarter. Over the past year, the growth rate has been 2.3 percent. At that pace, there’s enough momentum to keep unemployment, currently 7.8 percent, from getting much worse.

Via: Newsbusters,
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