Friday, August 5, 2011

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Health Care “Reform” and Jobs

CLAIM:  “So this bill is not only about the health security of America.  It’s about jobs.  In its life it will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

— Speaker Pelosi at the White House health summit

FACT:  According to this morning’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy generated only 118,000 jobs during July – still below the 150,000 new jobs per month that most experts agree are needed just to keep up with the growth in the labor force.

FACT:  Former Obama Administration adviser Larry Summers, writing in an op-ed in the Washington Post earlier this week, acknowledged that “it would be surprising if growth were rapid enough to reduce unemployment even to 8.5 percent by the end of 2012” – even though the Administration promised in 2009 that unemployment would not rise below 8 percent if the “stimulus” bill passed.