CBO: Health care repeal would increase deficit

Using a partial quote from a Congressional Budget Office study, the Republican report suggested that the nonpartisan office agreed that the law will cause significant job losses.

In fact, what the CBO actually said was that the law will "reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by a small amount." In the Republican report "small amount" was replaced by an ellipsis. And CBO said most of that would come not from employers cutting jobs, but from people deciding they don't need to work as much because they can get health insurance more easily.

George Mason University health economist Len Nichols said that Republicans were trying to compare apples to oranges. "The CBO report is about people willingly withdrawing their labor," he said. "That is quite different from jobs that employers offer workers."

The House has scheduled a procedural vote on repeal Friday, with final action next week.

Polls show that Americans remain divided over the health care law, but there's no clear mandate for repeal either. An Associated Press-GfK survey in November found those favoring repeal were outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by those who said the law should be left as it is, or changed to do more.

Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo and AP writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.