As legislators debate health care reform in Washington, 200 economists — including John Diamond, the Baker Institute Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance — this week voiced their concerns in a letter that makes the economic case against President Obama’s signature health care legislation. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “is a threat to U.S. businesses and will place a crushing debt burden on future generations of Americans,” the economists write in a letter released by the American Action Forum, a policy organization. The economists assert that the law will stifle job growth and could potentially raise the federal budget deficit by more than $500 billion during the first 10 years and by nearly $1.5 trillion in the following decade.
Five congressional budget experts — including two former Congressional Budget Office directors — and four Federal Reserve economists — including a Nobel Laureate in economics — are among the economists who signed the letter.
Read a copy of the letter at the American Action Forum website.