It was a passing comment, but it really should close the door on today’s Big Political Story®.
By way of background, at a breakfast roundtable today, a reporter for another outlet asked CBO director Doug Elmendorf if his agency has detected that the health care law has had an adverse impact on business. “We don’t think that the health care law is having a significant impact on the economy today,” he said.
Why does that matter?
Because as luck would have it, Mitt Romney’s out on the trail today attacking President Obama for not recognizing — as if it was an obvious fact — that the health care law is hurting small businesses.
His source for the attack is a year-old online survey by the Chamber of Commerce. Not to suggest that the CBO has its finger on the pulse of America, but I think they have a bit more credibility on this point.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.