Ted Cruz’s Claim That “Obamacare Is A Job Killer” Debunked By Fact-Checkers

Ted Cruz’s assertion during the GOP debate on Thursday night that Obamacare is a “job killer” left some scratching their heads and begging for a fact-check.

And as Ted himself said, sometimes the facts are inconvenient.

It’s unclear how Cruz’s claim could be true when data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that the U.S. has added 9 million jobs since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2009.

Cruz asserts that Obamacare has driven many into part-time work. But Department of Labor stats show that the number of people working part-time jobs has been on the decline.

This isn’t the first time that Cruz has made the “job killer” claim. He did the same thing in a June 2015 interview with CNN, like this:

TED CRUZ: “Under Obamacare, it’s the biggest job killer in this country. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Millions of Americans, single moms are working part time, because Obamacare kicks in at 30 hours a week, they’ve been forced to work 28, 29 hours a week.

CNN: Did you say millions of Americans lost their jobs because of Obamacare?

TED CRUZ: Yes, because millions of small businesses are not expanding, laying people off, staying under 50 employees, it’s the biggest job killer in this country.”

Politifact took up the claim last March, pointing out that in 2011 Republicans made the job-killing claim when they introduced the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” and Politifact cited independent studies to declare the claim false.

During the debate on Thursday, Cruz also said he favors opening state lines for health insurance coverage so that people can seek care elsewhere in the country. Cruz also favors low-cost catastrophic insurance, instead of the full coverage with preventative features favored by Obamacare.

The candidate said health insurance should be decoupled from the employer so that people buy their own insurance and remain covered if they lose their job. But one of the core ideas of Obamacare is that people can buy health insurance from an exchange if they can’t get it through an employer.

Obamacare has been vilified throughout the GOP primary process by virtually all candidates, but most have struggled to articulate the real economic reasons that it should be repealed or defunded.