Thanks a lot, Dems

There’s an interesting article in today’s Boston Globe talking about the weakness in the healthcare sector, and how that weakness is likely to pull down the MA economy.

From the article:

A slowing health care industry would have broad implications for the Massachusetts economy. Health care is the state’s biggest employment sector, accounting for about one in six jobs, and has provided stability through downturns and support for recoveries.

If health care continues to sputter now, the state conomy would lose an important engine of growth as it tries to sustain a still nascent recovery. In addition, the state is more vulnerable to economy, regulatory, and policy changes buffeting the industry since Massachusetts has a larger helath care sector than the nation as a whole. Health care accounts for more than 15% of employment in Massachusetts, compared with more than 12 percent nationally.

The federal health care overhall, which will be phased in over the next few years, will add more pressure to control costs, analysts said. And in an industry where labor accounts for 70% of expenses, controlling costs means slower employment growth.

The national debate on whether to ‘constrain’ healthcare costs is certainly one worth having, but if you are an elected official from Massachusetts, it would be insane to support Obamacare’s effort to cripple the healthcare sector. And yet, 9 of 10 of our congressmen did just that (only Stephen Lynch, MA9, voted no). Barney Frank in MA4 voted for it. So did Ed Markey in MA7. So did Jim McGovern in MA3. What are these politicians thinking? Why would they vote to infuse government control of the state’s growth sector? Now that engine for economic growth in the state is stalling, and the unemployment hole is set to get deeper. Thank your elected officials on November 2^nd.