By Dennis M. Howard
Economic conservatives are worried about the runaway tax-and-spend potential of President Obama’s health-care initiative. They are worried that “before this thing is through, it could cost us $1.6 trillion and still not solve the health-care problem.”
But that’s not even half of the real story.
What they’re overlooking is the hidden cost of federal funding of abortion as part of an “essential benefits package” that will be imposed on everyone unless it is explicitly excluded from the legislation. Right now, the Democrats are opposed to such an exclusion.
If the health-care bill passes without this exclusion, taxpayers will be forced to pay for other people’s abortions whether they like it or not. And the $1.6 trillion the eco-conservatives are worried about will only be the tip of a very large iceberg.
That’s because abortion has a huge hidden economic cost. It’s the loss in gross domestic product (GDP) represented by all those babies who never had a chance to grow up to become the future workers, consumers, taxpayers and parents the nation needs to sustain future economic growth.
This is something the younger generation better start worrying about. People under 40 will still be paying taxes 30 to 50 years from now, so they will take the biggest hit from this phenomenon. And because their numbers have already been depleted by abortion, that means even fewer shoulders on which to rest a much bigger burden.
We’ve already had more than 51.7 million abortions since 1970. That’s a whopping 30.6 percent of our current under-40 population. If we had a war that took that kind of toll, we would have run up the white flag decades ago. The pro-aborts just don’t give up that easily.
What they don’t want to admit is that people are our country’s most important renewable resource. Ever since Roe v. Wade, we’ve been depleting that resource with abandon.
The hidden cost of those 51.5 million abortions has already reached an estimated $35 trillion in lost GDP. Assuming a 33-percent tax rate, that’s enough to pay off our entire current national debt with enough left over to fund a vibrant economy.
If all those kids had lived, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in.
Looking forward, the picture isn’t any brighter … especially if we keep subsidizing abortion. That’s exactly what the Democrats propose to do by sending you the bill for other people’s abortions.
GDP per capita is now about $45,000 per year, and – until the current slump – it was compounding at a rate of four percent per year. It is a measure that includes everyone from the cradle to the grave. But every baby we abort is one less contributor to GDP – not just for today, but for a lifetime.
Every child we abort today will cost us about $23 million in future GDP over a lifetime. And the bonus is that babies don’t compete for jobs with the rest of us for their first 20 years. But they create jobs for everybody else – doctors, nurses, teachers, homebuilders, toymakers, retailers – you name it.
If there ever was a major job killer, it is the baby-killing industry.
Yet all those nuts we send to Congress continue to subsidize Planned Parenthood to the tune of $326 million a year. That’s about $1,000 for every abortion Planned Parenthood performs. Now Congress want to compound that by making you pay again … and again … and again.
So, unless abortion is explicitly excluded from Obama’s health-care plan, get ready for even higher taxes. Whether it’s your abortion or someone else’s, you’re going to get the bill.
Planned Parenthood estimates that the number of abortions will rise by 20–35 percent if the Obama health-care bill passes. That will take abortions back to levels not seen since the mid-1980s. And that means even bigger losses in future GDP.
Thanks to the magic of compounding, by 2040 to 2050, we’re already looking at cumulative GDP losses of $335–500 trillion dollars just from abortion. Add another 20–35 percent to that, and we’re talking about really big money.
That’s why I call “Obamacare” a fast track to national suicide. It is far more significant than anything else that threatens us this side of eternal damnation.
In his book Obamanomics, John Talbott lists "25 Greatest Threats to our Prosperity” and their potential costs. (Abortion oddly is not one of them!) High on his list are “World Poverty" ($100 trillion), "Global Warming" ($60 trillion), "Globalization’s Nasty Side Effects" ($60 trillion) … all the way down to “Terrorism" ($5 trillion).
His terrorism tab is laughable. We’ve already exceeded it. And nearly all of the others are based on numbers conjured up in someone’s imagination.
My estimates, on the other hand, are based on hard-rock numbers. GDP per capita is a measure that is used universally throughout the world. Indeed, my estimates are more conservative than those employed by government agencies in the cost/benefit analyses they use to plan their spending.
But try telling that to some politician who firmly believes that abortion is some kind of free lunch. Sure, it looks “free” to a guy who wants to avoid the responsibility of paying 21 years of child support, but the baby’s only crime is wanting to call him “Daddy” for the rest of his life.
For the rest of us, it adds up to more of what we have been experiencing for the last 35 years: declining personal incomes, a shrinking economy, lost jobs, rising taxes, and less freedom as the Nanny State takes over more and more of our personal lives.
In short, abortion is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people.
But you have a choice. If you want bigger tax bills, a grimmer future for your children and grandchildren, and more government encroachment on your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, just go back to sleep and forget you ever read this.
But if you are ready to fight this, come join us at We the People Speak, our new non-partisan educational campaign to restore common sense to American politics. Or join us on Facebook. Contact your representatives by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard: 202.224.3121. And urge them to explicitly exclude funding for abortion from any health-care bill.
Dennis Howard is president of the Movement for a Better America, an ALL Associate group dedicated to pro-life marketing communications and education. This commentary was originally published on http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org and is reprinted here with his kind permission. Dennis is a veteran journalist and market researcher who began researching abortion's economic impact in 1992. In 1994, based on long-term demographic trends, he began forecasting the current economic crisis. His forecasts have proven correct, starting in 2000 and continuing until 2010 and beyond. Dennis frequently speaks and gives interviews on this topic. Contact information: http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org; <a href="mailto:
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