The Trucker Newspaper - December 15-31, 2015

Thetrucker.com
Nation December 15-31, 2015 • 13
Congressional Budget Office report says Obamacare could cost 2 million jobs
Sarah Ferris
THE TRUCKER NEWS SERVICES
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in
a 22-page report December 7 said Obamacare
is expected to cost the U.S. workforce a total of
2 million jobs over the next decade.
The total workforce will shrink by just under
1 percent as a result of the new coverage
expansions, mandates and changes in tax rates,
the CBO said, according to The Hill.
“Some people would choose to work fewer
hours; others would leave the labor force entirely
or remain unemployed for longer than
they otherwise would,” the agency said in its
latest analysis of the now five-year-old law.
“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will make
the labor supply, measured as the total compensation
paid to workers, 0.86 percent smaller in
2025 than it would have been in the absence of
that law,” the CBO said in its summary.
A CBO spokesperson said the study didn’t
break the statistics down by industry, so figures
for the trucking industry by itself weren’t available.
Three-quarters of the expected decline will
occur because of health insurance expansions,
which raise effective tax rates on earnings from
labor — for instance, by phasing out health
insurance subsidies as people’s income rises
— and thus reduce the amount of labor that
workers choose to supply. The labor force is
projected to be about 2 million full-time-equivalent
workers smaller in 2025 under the ACA
than it would have been otherwise.
Those estimates were based mainly on
CBO’s calculations of the effects of the law’s
major components on marginal and average tax
rates and on the agency’s analysis of research
about the change in the labor supply resulting
from a change in tax rates. For components of
the law that were difficult to express in terms
of changes in tax rates, CBO based its estimates
on a review of the available literature
about similar policy changes.
“When the President’s health law hurts
the labor force at the same time it increases
healthcare premiums and taxes, it’s clear the
law is not working for the American people,”
said Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah. “The CBO’s latest report confirms yet
another broken promise and negative consequence
stemming from Obamacare.”
The administration in the past has argued
that the CBO figures also reflect new flexibility
provided to work through the healthcare law.
The lower numbers could also mean that
older Americans who wish to retire — but
have remained in the workforce solely for
employer health benefits — could opt to leave
their jobs, according to The Hill article.
The CBO said its estimates were still based
on uncertain evidence, citing, for example, that
it does not know yet how people will respond
to the work incentives created by the law.
The report comes just days after the Senate
voted for the first time to send a repeal of the
biggest pieces of Obamacare to the president’s
desk.
House Speaker Paul Ryan pledged last week
to roll out a replacement plan for the healthcare
law next year. 8
Sarah Ferris writes for The Hill.
FMCSA to seek comments
on proposed seat belt rule
THE TRUCKER NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today
announced it is seeking public comment
on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
requiring passengers riding in property-carrying
commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to use
safety belts.
Federal rules have long required all commercial
drivers to use safety belts (49 CFR
392.16); this proposed rule would hold both
trucking companies and commercial truck drivers
responsible for ensuring that any passengers
riding in the truck cab are also buckled up.
Approximately 275 occupants of large
trucks killed in crashes in 2013 were not wearing
their safety belts, according to the most
recently available data from the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration.
For a copy of the Federal Register announcement
and to see how to comment, see: federalregister.gov/articles/2015/12/10/2015-30864/
commercial-drivers-license-standards-useof-seat-belts.
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