Visions Of The Future

By Sniffles

Gosh, with all the headlines lately about how Obamacare is benefiting ordinary Americans, the Republicans and their enablers are sure going full steam ahead in response.

This pathetic post from The Fiscal Times is only one example. Here's their schtick: Employers hate Obamacare. So they won't hire new full-time workers, and may eliminate some full-time positions — instead, creating part-time positions, and not working the people who fill them enough hours to allow them to qualify for healthcare coverage.

We cats call piffle on that. Because even if that happens in the short term, here's what will happen in the long term:

• Those part-time employees will be able to get subsidized coverage through their state health exchanges.
• Since Republicans are admitting that, even if they're only part-time, Obamacare will create new positions, those jobs will offer a lifeline for the unemployed and the underemployed, who will be able to potentially take on another part-time job.
• Those additional jobs will put money in the hands of low-income wage earners — which will help spur economic activity, because those wage earners will spend, not save, that extra cash.
• That, in turn, will lead to more hiring. And folks who were previously unemployed, but who now are getting current job experience (and new job skills), will become more desirable employees.
• As hiring picks up and the number of people seeking jobs ticks down, the pressure on employers to make their jobs more attractive will increase.

Bottom line? Barring a new economic meltdown, we cats think we'll see more unemployed working in some capacity, more people who want to work working, more pressure on companies to offer competitive pay and benefits, and more wage earners spending more money and putting more ooomph into the economy.

Maybe we cats have stars in our eyes, but we see a whole lot better than humans do. Especially right-wing humans. So thank you, Obamacare. We cats PURR.