Pelosi Claims Repeal of 'Obamacare' Would 'Destroy 300,000 Jobs

Remember when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) infamously stated back in 2009: “[E]very month we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs"?

At the time, a few critics dared to point out that Pelosi’s numbers were, at best, questionable. If her calculations were correct, and taking into consideration the time she made this claim, America stood to lose 6 billion jobs in 2009 alone.

Obviously, this is impossible.

Pelosi's dire prediction was swiftly disproved. It's no secret that, last time the U.S. Census Bureau checked, the U.S. has a population of about 312 million people (and of course not all of them have jobs).

Now, it looks as if the House Minority Leaders’ calculations might be off-base again.

An issues statement from Pelosi's office went after House Republicans for passing legislation that would “allegedly ‘destroy 2 million jobs,’" and claimed that "the Obamacare repeal bill alone would ‘destroy more than 300,000 jobs,’” reports Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner.

The statement reads: 

Republicans have held the House majority for more than 230 days and here is their record:

• Have failed to pass a single piece of legislation to create jobs.
• Have actually voted to pass legislation that would destroy nearly 2 million jobs, including:
• Passed the “So Be It” spending bill to slash investments in our economic future like education, college aid, life-saving medical research, infrastructure, and clean energy, and cut 700,000 jobs.
• Passed a budget that would cost Americans 1.7 million jobs by 2014, with 900,000 jobs lost next year, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
• Passed GOP Patients’ Rights Repeal bill puts insurance companies back in charge of health care and repeals the Affordable Care Act, thereby destroying more than 300,000 jobs.
• Have voted 10 times against Democratic initiatives or efforts to consider Democratic initiatives to create jobs, including:
• The China Currency bill that could help create about 1 million American manufacturing jobs.
• An American jobs effort to end government contracts rewarding corporations that ship American jobs overseas.
• A Build America Bonds proposal that leverages public dollars to strengthen the private sector, growing our economy by rebuilding America’s schools, hospitals, and transit projects.

But let's go back to the "300,000" jobs claim. There are a few points that should be made.

First, her claim that jobs would be destroyed assumes that "Obamacare" would create jobs -- something that flies directly in the face of what CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said during a 2010 House Budget Committee hearing:

Second, even if "Obamacare" is the jobs creator she claims it is, the jobs that would stem from the bill would go to the public sector. Public sector growth and private sector growth are two very different things.

Third, maybe Pelosi should hedge her bets and let House Republicans have their way on this one. Although it would mean axing “Obamacare," Democrats could still claim to have created at least 100,000 new jobs.

How so?

The Minority Leader herself said that the passage of “Obamacare” would “immediately” create “at least 400,000 jobs”:

Therefore, if Republicans repeal the act, and it cuts a little over 300,000 non-existent jobs, Democrats can still claim that they created at least 100,000 non-existent jobs.

Pelosi’s criticisms continued.

"One year ago the Republican majority was sworn into office," she said during a press brief. "Since that time we have seen no major job agenda put forward. We have seen a budget that would break the Medicare guarantee. This is just in opposition to everything this country needs.”

She also took the opportunity to call on House Republicans to end their adjournment and return to Congress, adding that House Republicans should be "right here in this Capitol" working on legislation such as the payroll tax cut extension.

Click here to see the entire press briefing: