GOP Myth Busted, ‘Since the ACA passed, 90 percent of job growth has been full-time.’

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:45 pm

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A rather desperate House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeted Sunday “90% of the jobs created have been part-time. Obamacare creates a part-time economy, part-time opportunity, and a part-time America.”

This, of course, is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. (Sadly, this is becoming the norm – if a Republican is talking, your odds of finding truth are best if you invert claim and work from there.)

90% of the jobs created have been part-time. Obamacare creates a part-time economy, part-time opportunity, and a part-time America.

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPWhip) September 29, 2013

Pesky PolitiFact is not impressed with this Republican talking point.

On August 2 of this year, PolitiFact rated a claim by Alan Krueger, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Krueger said that most jobs created since passage of the health care law have been full-time positions. And he got a TRUE for this claim.

PolitiFact noted, “We recently noticed two seemingly contradictory comments on this topic — one from a Republican, one from a Democrat — and thought it would be worthwhile checking both.”

You don’t say? Fiction (R) versus Reality (D) again? This is getting so old. Democrats are hardly saints, but compared to this specific lot of Republicans, they are almost always more accurate.

Mean old PolitiFact used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other liberal gotchas like facts to determine that Republicans’ talking point about the “part time America” is not true, especially as Krueger stated it in relationship to the Affordable Care Act.

“(S)ince the Affordable Care Act passed, 90 percent of job growth has been in full-time positions.” The statistics show that 87 percent of the increase in jobs between March 2010 and July 2013 consisted of full-time jobs. A shorter time frame would show the opposite pattern, but on the numbers, Krueger is right. We rate the claim True.

Again, Republicans are trying to claim that America has become a part time job country as a direct result of ObmaaCare’s existence.

McCarthy is trying to make the public case for what’s going down and for what’s coming. Today on Fox News, he made it pretty clear that no matter what, House Republicans are going to defund ObamaCare. “We will pass a bill if the Senate [tables the CR] that will keep the government open, that will reflect the House, that I believe the Senate can accept, that will have fundamental changes into Obamacare that can protect the economy of America.”

So, what McCarthy is saying is the law and order Republicans are now doubling down on violating the process for making laws and additionally refusing to honor the law and their constitutional duty. In order to justify this mystifying obtuseness in the face of polls showing that America is not with them, Republicans have to find a reason that makes sense to the average Americans. Thus, they are appealing to the fact that many Americans don’t have gainful employment.

Of course, Republicans aren’t uttering a peep about the fact that they are the chamber that refused to pass the President’s Jobs Bill, so in essence they are blaming Obama’s healthcare law for their refusal to do the people’s work regarding jobs bills. Nifty shell trick. (They were very busy putting on show votes to repeal ObamaCare for re-election purposes.)

If only House Republicans would get more specific, they could score a big win. McCarthy should explain that he is referring to the House Republicans’ jobs, which have become part time due to their apparent disdain for government.

Yes, House Republicans are going to be in session for only 126 days in 2013, but they still demanded their full $174,000 salary. But bonus! While they are at it, they are working to make sure you get less from the government, including a shutdown garnish for the big win.

Ever since Obama got elected in 2008, it’s been one long Republican temper tantrum.

Poor Kevin McCarthy really does have the worst job in the world — wrangling the rebellious Tea juveniles in the House, but this is no excuse for House leadership chasing the tea tail. We’re starting to wonder why Republicans hate America so much.

Sarah Jones

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