CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER’S “WAR ON OBAMA"



 

…The Kraut-Man himself

 

As with most conservatives, Mr. Krauthammer interprets the CBO Report in his own terms, not that of the Congressional Budget Office.

I sometimes think I can’t be surprised any more by the antics from the far right, but I’m always found to be wrong when I think that way.  I’ve also tried lately to stay away from criticizing Mr. Charles Krauthammer and his approach to conservatism, but once more I have to say, “uh-oh, there he goes again”.

This time, instead of the far-right’s “War on Women”, which they do have in full swing as we speak, the “Kraut-Man” has now stated that, “Obamacare is a War on Jobs”.

Yep, the concept of his bizarre idea is that by offering a subsidy for health care coverage, this will cause people to just stop working. 

To quote the Kraut-Man, “In the new [health care] opportunity society, you are given the opportunity for idleness while [you will be] living parasitically off everyone else.” 

What?

Obamacare only creates an “opportunity” that according to White House spokesman, Jay Carney, “allows families in America to make a decision about how they will work, and if they will work.”  The Kraut-Man is obviously taking the “if they will work”, literally.  He apparently thinks that after receiving a health care subsidy, the major bread winners of the family would just up and stop working, and as the Kraut-Man said, “quit work to tend full time to the study of butterflies”.

The Kraut-Man apparently doesn’t understand that the “if they will work” comment was meant for a family with two working parents.  Having a health care subsidy for affordable healthcare might allow for "one of the two breadwinners" to cut their working hours, or even quit their job to stay home with their children.  It does not mean to, “quit your job and go on welfare”.

In addition, for a potential entrepreneur, or an artist or a photographer or a writer, it might allow them to pursue their visions and to stop worrying about keeping that day job just to maintain their health insurance.

In addition, I’m sure the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  subsidy will not be a “War on Jobs” in the way that Mr. Krauthammer is implying with such an aggressive accusation.

Krauthammer even went so far as to compare the effects of Obamacare to the teachings of Karl Marx.  Per Krauthammer, “Nothing so lyrical has been written about work since Marx, in ‘The German Ideology’ which described a communist society that ‘makes it possible for me to . . . hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner’.”……Errr, Right Charles….

Then, Krauthammer just had to go after the conservatives favorite "target liberal", House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, when he said, “Nancy Pelosi spoke lyrically about how Obamacare subsidies will allow people to leave unfulfilling jobs to pursue their passions.”  But he writes about this possibility as if it should leave a disgusting taste in a person’s mouth.  You know, as he said, “The taxes of the American factory worker — grinding away dutifully at his repetitive mind-numbing job — will be subsidizing the voluntary unemployment of the artiste in search of his muse.”

Sorry Kraut-Man, the American factory worker will not be paying his hard earned taxes for an American welfare non-worker. 

Even the CBO says the ACA is eventually expected to save that hard working factory worker their tax payer money and to offer that same worker even better health care coverage than he or she is receiving today.  And yes, instead of working for maintaining a minimum coverage health care plan, the ACA might allow a mother or father to work fewer hours or to stay at home instead of spending good money on day-care.

Krauthammer finally had the gall to write, “Pre-Obama, people always had the right to quit work to tend full time to the study of butterflies. It’s a free country.” 

 

Well, I guess if you are independently wealthy, or a child in a wealthy family, you could just quit work and do whatever you want.  But even then, the individual would still eventually need to acquire a health care plan in some fashion.

The whole point of the Kraut-Man’s article is say that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report had tripled its original estimate of a drop in the work hours.  Now, the way Krauthammer put it was that these were "job losses" and they were all due to Obamacare.  This is totally untrue.

The truth is that the CBO report says that the workforce hours will drop for a number of reasons.  The reasons being that there will (1) be an increase in retiring baby-boomers over the next 10 years (2) because the nation’s population is increasing at an ever slower rate and (3) yes, Obamacare will allow people to work less and retire earlier, as they will not need to keep working just to keep their health care coverage. 

 

It will not all be because of the ACA, and the head of the CBO came out and made that exact statement.

Therefore, as with other country's that provide health care to their citizens, there will be fewer hours worked by the American workforce in the future.

At the end of his false article, the Kraut-man listed even more untrue statements about the ACA and "the effect it is having on job losses and how it’s crushing small businesses".  None of that is true.  As usual with the Republicans and the conservatives, Krauthammer gives no examples of any of these accusations.

In other words, it is “un-truthful business as usual” for the conservatives, the GOP and the Kraut-Man in particular.

Copyright G.Ater  2014