Current event article and synopsis about obama care

Current event and synopsis about obama care - Article Example White House spokesman Jay Carney downplayed the CBO report, arguing that â€Å"CBO does not take into account positive impacts on worker productivity due to the ACAs role in improving workers health, including reduced absenteeism.† But there is no worker as unproductive or as absent as the one who works less on purpose because a small increase in pay could suddenly deprive him or her of a large Obamacare subsidy. One White House adviser tried to defend this as creating new â€Å"options† for workers, but this is an ad hoc defense, forced on Obama as an unintended and unwelcome consequence of his health care law. Obamacares disincentive to work directly contradicts Obamas consistent philosophy of work - something he began articulating as long as a decade ago and which he has restated as recently as last weeks State of the Union address. Obamas philosophy is an orthodox liberal one, but it starts with premises most conservatives would embrace. In his 2006 memoir The Audacity of Hope, he extolled the virtues of â€Å"self-reliance," "self-improvement," "drive," "discipline," "temperance," "hard work," "thrift" and "personal responsibility.† Then he added the punch line: â€Å"The legitimacy of our government and our economy depend on the degree to which these values are rewarded.† In a passage that specifically criticizes the perverse incentives of the welfare state, Obama wrote that â€Å"Americans believe in work — not just as a means of supporting themselves but as a means of giving their lives purpose and direction, order and dignity †¦ Americans also believe that if we work full-time, we should be able to support ourselves and our kids. For many people on the bottom rungs of the economy — mainly low-skilled workers in the rapidly growing service sector — this basic promise isn’t being fulfilled.† In short, Obama appeals to the work ethic as something government and all employers have a societal obligation to reward. This echoes in the argument