Obama abandons the phrase “hard working people.”

Not since the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union has the Left in this country done such an abrupt 180.  Read the history book and you find that after the Hitler-Stalin pact was signed, marking the beginning of WW II in Europe, the American Left worked tirelessly to keep us out of war.  Accurately expressing that view, the old Communist Pete Seeger penned a song with the line

  “Franklin Roosevelt is leading an unwilling people into a J.P. Morgan war.” 

Once Hitler attacked Stalin it was no longer J.P. Morgan’s war; instead the Left demanded a gun:  

“So, Mr. President, we got this one big job to do, that’s lick Mr. Hitler and when we’re through, let no one else ever take his place, to trample down the human race, so what I want is you to give me a gun so we can hurry up and get the job done.”

On February 4th the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)  announced that over 2 million people would probably quit working thanks to ObamaCare.   It wasn't quite the invasion of Russia, but it was still something of a shock.  

It took less than a day for the Left to abandon the idea that all Americans wanted to be hard-working, even if those who could not find a job.  Instead the new meme is that working Americans are wage slaves and ObamaCare has freed them from those shackles.  Google “Obama hard working people” and you get 674 million results.  But that was before the CBO report.  

Everyone on the Left was momentarily stunned.  But since ObamaCare HAD to survive, the negative had to be turned into a positive.  So Jay Carney was trotted out to tell us “what great news!”   And that gave the media their direction.  A mere week ago the Left asserted that those who were not working were desperately looking for a job.  Today we are told that those same people don’t want to work, don't need to work, in fact they should not work,  because they are living the dream. 

Of course the unemployed dream-catchers were all portrayed as sympathetic figures.  The single mom able to stay home and care for the children, the elderly who can now retire, the over-age student who can now pursue his study on a cure for cancer and the common cold in one little pill.  Rush Limbaugh was able to aggregate statements made by many of the Democrats who hailed the end of work.

Here’s Keith Ellison, (D-MN) on the benefits of not working:

What the Congressional Budget Office is saying is that we’re gonna discourage kids having to have latchkey. We’re gonna have parents being able to come home working reasonable hours. People are gonna be able to retire. People might be able to actually cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout.  Americans work way more than the average of industrialized countries around the world.  We need a better work-life balance.  Ask a working mother, okay, if she could use a few more hours in a day to take care of her family.

Now actually, that’s not what the CBO said, or the reality.  When people drop out of the work force they are not “able to come home at reasonable hours,” they are going to be home, period.  So the image of the parent working a few hours less and spending time cooking a healthy meal thanks to ObamaCare is a fantasy.  Ellison’s “working mother” may be a mother, but she’s not working if she drops out as part of the CBO’s 2 million plus. 

E.J. Dionne (D-WaPo) gives us this charming picture of the couple taking a sabbatical from life:

Just think about the money put in people's pockets when they're saving on their insurance from subsidies! Think of two people.  We're supposed to be for family values.  You have a couple where somebody wants to leave the labor force for a couple years to take care of their kids.  Under the old system, if that person carried the health insurance, they didn't have the option to leave.  Uh, now they can!  What you're doing is expanding people's choices.

Let’s say they do exactly that, and now that the kids are older they decide to apply for a job  Let’s not even ask what they have been living on for the “couple of years” they've taken off.  Let’s say they are a well-paid professional couple with no mortgage or other debts and they were living off their savings.  They go to a job interview and explain how they have been spending their time.  What are the chances?When you hire someone you want someone who’s committed to his job, who’s anxious to work, who you can depend on for a long time.  Let’s just say that E. J. Dionne’s free spirits would be hired in the fast food industry where annual turnover is 100%, but most other employers would look for someone who's more committed to their career.

Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also thinks that not working is a great idea; it’s "freedom":

What CBO said is that many American workers would have freedom. Now, that's a good word, freedom to do things that they couldn't do. The single mom who’s raising three kids has to keep a job ‘cause of health care can now spend some time raising those kids. That's a family value. The student, 27 years old, wants to finish school quickly so he can get a great job, can't ‘cause he needs health care, is now free.

Well, actually health care is not “free” and never has been.  It’s quite expensive.  The question is who’s paying for it.  Presumably not the single mom or the student living the life in Schumer’s world.

But thanks to the Left’s commitment to ObamaCare they are now firmly embracing the new concept that not working is a “family value” and staying home is perfectly fine.  Which means that those millions of unemployed are not going to be described as wanna-be “hard working”  any more.  That’s apparently no longer a family value.  In fact if you spend too much time working to feed, clothe or house your family you may have a screw loose. 

It may take a few weeks or months for the Obama’s speech writers to take out references to “hard working” Americans from his teleprompter, but take my word for it,  the new minstrels of the Left will tell us:  

“So, Mr. President, we got us some leisure time to take, that’s the end of hard work for me, and when we’re through, me and my baby momma, we’ll sit in the sun, so what I want is that ObamaCare application so we can take this job and shove it.”

And Obama will smile because suddenly unemployment is not a bad thing.  In fact it's a "family value. " And when his "year of action" on jobs proves to be as big a bust as all his previous jobs plans, the press will tell us that's a good thing.