CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf: People Have 'Disincentive to Work' Under #ObamaCare

William Jacobson reports, "CBO warning for years that Obamacare creates disincentive to work":

Elmendorf testimony in February 2011 almost identical to testimony today, only the total numbers now are worse.

There's some bizarre left-wing spin holding that, for some reason, the CBO report is actually a win for Dems, because it gives workers "flexiblity" or some such bullshit. It's only the regressive morons trying to squirm their way out from under this turd. Even far-left columnist Dana Milbank calls the CBO report for what it is: a political disaster. At WaPo, "Obamacare’s scorekeepers deliver a game-changer":

This is grim news for the White House and for Democrats on the ballot in November. This independent arbiter, long embraced by the White House, has validated a core complaint of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) critics: that it will discourage work and become an ungainly entitlement. Disputing Republicans’ charges is much easier than refuting the federal government’s official scorekeepers.

White House officials rushed to dispute the referee’s call — arguing, somewhat contradictorily, that the finding was both flawed and really good news if interpreted properly.

Press secretary Jay Carney quickly issued a statement saying that the CBO report was, by its own admission, “incomplete” and “does not take into account” some favorable effects of the law.

Carney postponed his daily press briefing, then arrived with Jason Furman, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, who argued that the Affordable Care Act couldn’t possibly be a job killer because 8.1 million jobs had been created since it became law. This is true — but irrelevant to the CBO finding.

Meanwhile, Gene Sperling, Obama’s top economic-policy adviser, walked to the White House lawn and told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he rejected the finding. “When you have two parents and they’re both working full time to provide health care and they don’t feel they’re there to do homework with their kids and this allows one of [them] to work a little less because they have health care, that’s not costing jobs,” Sperling argued.

Sounds nice, except the CBO said its more pessimistic workforce view had been shaped by recent studies, “in particular” those looking at “expansions or contractions in Medicaid eligibility for childless adults.” In general, the CBO explained, phasing out subsidies to buy health insurance when income rises “effectively raises people’s marginal tax rates . . . thus discouraging work.”

Look, the law's an abominable clusterf-k. It's destroying the healthcare system and damaging the economy. Only the most depraved partisan hacks are defending it. Sad.