Navigating The Minefield of 'Job-Lock'

Two weeks ago now, the Congressional Budget Office released a report stating that by 2024, Obamacare will reduce the size of the U.S. labor force by 2.5 million full time equivalent workers- a significant jump from what they had previously predicted three years ago.  (They also made much of the news that ACA enrollment had jumped to 3.3 million people- though that's not the real number.  The real number is how many people are actually enrolling and paying for their policies- and apparently they don't have those numbers yet.)

Anyway...  so, 2.5 million fewer full time workers-  that should be a bad thing, right? Apparently not...  this was the money quote from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney:

Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law, individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods, like retiring on time rather than working into their elderly years or choosing to spend more time with their families. At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams

The frantic spin from the left has been to try and play this as not 'lost jobs' but instead, 'reduced work hours.'  Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison doubled down on the 'chase your dreams' rhetoric:

Ellison countered that the CBO report on the reduction of hours worked means, "We are going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours. People are going to be able to retire. People might actually be able to cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout."
He added: "If you look at international comparisons country by country, Americans work way more that the average of industrialized countries around the world."
He said the report showing fewer work hours gives us the chance "to look at our work/life balance," which he described as "a great opportunity."

And the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers took to his blog to try and fleshout a defense for the news that if you're not about to be effed out of a job, you're about to be effed out of a decent paycheck- but hey, you'll have crappy, government-healthcare, so shut up, right?

Of course, Dems/Progs trotted out the usual 'it's all the GOPers fault' thing by digging up this true, gem of an article (written by a University of Iowa Professor of Leisure Studies) arguing that- well, shit I don't know what his point was, but apparently it's something to do with this:

Then real progress would begin. Humane and moral progress. Instead of perpetual consumerism and the infinite increase in material wealth, we would naturally turn to improving the human condition, learning how to live together “wisely, agreeable, and well,” as Keynes put it. Progress would then take the form of healthier families, communities and cities—the increase of knowledge, the enjoyment of nature, history and other peoples, an increasing delight in the marvels of the human spirit, the practice of our beliefs and values together, the finding of common ground for conviviality, expanding our awareness of God, wondering in Creation.

So, we should all sit around and get high basically?  I don't know-  I don't really want to touch on the continuing mess over health care in this country, because it's all been written about before and depending on who you read, it's either the best thing since sliced bread and it's going wonderfully or it's a slow-motion trainwreck and we should be making like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive and trying to get the fuck out of the way.

What does irk me about this spin is that it's incredibly, incredibly stupid politics.  If I were a GOPer, I'd be cutting ads accusing Democrats of hating work and running them from now until the end of time.  I'd be saying things like 'they want everyone to be freeloading, lazy assholes and they expect YOU to pay for it!'  And I'd keep saying variations on that until the election because this whole, lazy-ass pile of rhetoric is a Christmas gift with a bow on top to the GOPers.  It might as well be a candygram and a stripper.

Look, I know what they're trying to say:  they're trying to say that people shouldn't have to work six jobs just to support their family and get some kind of shitty, cut-rate insurance to make sure their kids don't die of a papercut.  I get that.  But I also know that when we moved back down here in 2009, my first job was working at Wal-Mart for $7.45/hour and I busted my ass and kept applying for jobs until I found something better- and look at where I am now!

That said:  I'm not so blind to my privilege that I won't acknowledge that if I wasn't a white guy and didn't live in a relatively prosperous area of the country that the notion that people should just 'bust their ass until they get something better' can be a hell of a lot easier said than done.

But whatever the answer, pissing all over the notion of hard work and self-sufficiency is not only distinctly un-American, it's flat out disgusting and disrespectful as well.  Leaving aside the unanswered question of how anyone is going to pay their mortgages, student loans or electric bills when they're out contemplating their 'higher purpose' or enjoying their lives more, there's the fact that a lot of us don't work because we have too, we work because we enjoy being able to afford the lives we have.  If working pays for a modicum of comfort, fun experiences/trips and a decent bottle of whiskey now and again- plus all of my bills, then yes, I'm going to work.

The idea that we should all sit around in a drum circle, hold hands and get in touch with nature or some silly hippy-dippy bullshit like that only underscores what many have suspected about the Dems/Progs of the far left- which is exactly what we know about their counterparts on the far right:  they live in a totally separate universe from the rest of us.

Down here in the real world, I still have bills to pay- so if you could not cut my hours, that'd be great!  And you best hope some GOPer doesn't get too wise to this and start using it in an intelligent fashion, because if this is the best spin that the Obama Administration can come up with to cover-up the ongoing shit-show that is the Affordable Care Act, then we are all, as a nation, well and truly fucked.