In other words, no longer do socialists promise to save us by bringing us a greater prosperity — they seek to save us from prosperity. — Yours truly, October 14, 2003

Thanks to the magic of politically expedient ‘truth,’ the statist left has developed several defense mechanisms against their inevitable disappointing results. They include (this list is far from comprehensive; I’m leaving out the ever-reliable argument via sputo, for example) simply ignoring them, lying about them, changing the terms after the fact, obfuscating the truth via euphemism, and arguing that the unintended negative consequence is — and always was — the positive intentional outcome (the “Misery As Ideal” defense).

Those last two have been used especially in the wake of the recent CBO report on Obamacare finding much worse employment effects than originally expected. Note that the baseline for those expectations were the lesser negative employment effects, not the promises of “higher employment.”

The CBO’s finding could not be ignored, so a much stronger vigorous defense was called for. A few examples:

  • 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 White House, February 4, 2014
  • Many workers, however, will see not having to “work for the man” to get health coverage as liberation. — Froma Harrop, Creators Syndicate, February 7, 2014
  • What the CBO actually said was that many Americans who work in order to qualify for health insurance through their employers will no longer be chained to their jobs for insurance purposes. — The News & Observer, February 7, 2014
  • The idea behind “job lock” is that people won’t leave a job if they fear losing their insurance. — WRAL, February 6, 2014

Had the CBO report had found high positive employment effects, would the White House and media allies forget their talk of greater employment and instead write of the unexpected bad news that Obamacare must be contributing to “job lock” and leaving poor Americans unliberated from their employment chains?

No. Regardless of the findings, the spin was going to be positive surprise, like that of a dutiful child child at Christmas receiving socks from a senile, good-hearted elder. (Unwraps report.) “Two million to two point five million fewer full-time-equivalent workers? Wow! Thanks, Great Grandma Karla! These will really help with … um … job lock!”

Americans for Prosperity had fun with this forced-smile reaction, putting it in context with the recent Obamacare campaign image of a young man getting ready to take on the day drinking strong black coffee planning to sit around house all day in footie pajamas sipping hot cocoa:

AFP re ACA euphemisms

Meanwhile, the defense against the ongoing, Obamacare-driven spike in “involuntary part-time workers” (what, not even “halfway liberated workers”?) is still primarily to ignore it.