It’s Official: Americans Spent All Their ‘Gas Savings’ On Obamacare

obamacare-symbol

It’s Official: Americans Spent All Their “Gas Savings” On Obamacare (ZeroHedge, March 27, 2015):

Last quarter, when we showed what was “The Reason For The “Surge” In Q3 GDP”, some were shocked to learn that in the quarter in which US GDP posted a 5% surge, it was none other than Obamacare – a mandatory tax according to the Supreme Court which has the benefit of flowing through the US income statement – which contributed the bulk of this upside.

Final Q3 GDP contribution_2

We are happy, and we use the term loosely, that history has just repeated itself, and now that the final number is available, what we wrote a month ago in “Here Is What Americans Spent Their “Gas Savings” On” has just been confirmed, and as the chart below shows, in the final revision of Q4 GDP, while virtually every other category of household spending was largely unchanged or revised lower, it was Healthcare, of which Obamacare was the biggest contributor on the margin, which saw an unprecedented surge in total spending, from $1.858 trillion to $1.871.9 trillion just between the second and final GDP revisions: a bump of $13.9 billion, without which Q3 GDP would have grown well below 2%!

Obamacare Q4 GDp_1

It gets better, because in the fourth quarter total spending on healthcare in chained-dollars was a whopping $35.3 billion. An all time record!

spending on healthcare_1

And the absolute shocker: of the $89.1 billion increase in Q4 GDP in chained-dollars, healthcare was $35.3 billion of that, or 40% of the total.

Yes, healthcare spending accounted for 40% of GDP growth in Q4!

With that we are happy to have unmasked the two great mysteries of the US economy in recent history: the first being why there is no wage growth, which as we showed previously is because all the wage growth was going to the 20% of the workforce that is supervisors and bosses. For everyone else: better luck in a next life where you too get to “supervise.”

wages of non-supervisory employees

wages of supervisory employees_2

… and now we have solved the mystery of why US households did not spend all those billions in “dropping gas price” windfalls – the answer is that they did in fact spend all this money.

On Obamacare.

Obamacare

Obama Supporters Meet Obamacare

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Obamacare-Promises-VS-Reality

 

5 thoughts on “It’s Official: Americans Spent All Their ‘Gas Savings’ On Obamacare”

  1. I was one who had hopes of finally getting health care in a Medicare, non profit plan, similar to most other first world countries. When Obama took office, the first thing he did (after forcing GM into bankruptcy to help them screw thousands of workers) was to take single payer off the table……when he did that, it was clear to me what was coming.

    When I got Medicare (fortunately before Obamacare), I received tons of booklets on all these medical plans….I called Medicare. Their own people sat on the phone with me, trying to convince me to go with Blue Cross…..and the premiums were $900.00 a month! The next morning, Blue Cross raised premiums 39%…..

    I called some people who already had Medicare, they told me to keep the Medicare card, and sign up for a supplemental. Cheaper by $750…..

    This told me Medicare wants out of the health care game……and warned others getting Medicare to not buy the sales job from their so-called representative.

    When Obama care came into being, I was already covered with Medicare. I have friends who are terrified of changing jobs in case they don’t get new medical coverage…..Obama’s system fines them…….it is madness.

    He fixed it for the greedy guts. 300 million captive customers, and no limit on what they can charge us……………more insanity in our living. I cannot believe there are still people who think he is great.

    Reply
  2. By the way, the Greece situation is getting worse. The Germans are disgusted with the third world mentality of the Greeks. One of their people told the Greek Prime minister to stop blaming others for their countries’ situation…….

    The Germans ought to have looked more closely at who they were loaning money to…….Greece has been on the free money train since WW2….

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-27/greece-s-german-allies-aghast-as-tsipras-fails-to-assure

    Reply

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