The response to the CBO report that 2.5 million people will choose to work fewer hours to qualify for health care subsidies exemplifies the difference between liberals and conservatives. Liberals welcome the opportunity for people to work less and no longer feel “locked” into their current job because it provides “insurance.”

Conservatives recognize that “someone” will have to pay the additional costs of providing the insurance, either through higher taxes or higher insurance premiums. They also know fewer full-time workers means less economic growth because fewer “goods and services” will be created with less demand because of reduced income. Fewer work hours also reduces the funds government gets for Social Security and all the other government entitlements, exacerbating an already critical long-term problem.

It doesn’t bode well for our country’s future when people have an incentive to be more dependent on the government at the expense of those who refrain from doing so.

Bill Hirt, Bellevue