It’s sad that some political commentators are speculating that conservatives may be less able to “use” Obamacare as an issue as the federal government gradually improves the technical problems that made the rollout last fall such a disaster.

Commentators who say that miss a crucial point: The real harm from Obamacare isn’t that the website didn’t work. It’s that the Orwellian-named “Affordable” Care Act is inflicting enormous damage on the economy.

That means it’s inflicting economic damage on Americans’ lives. A lot of that damage is just now coming to light. Investor's Business Daily reported on a survey from the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve on Thursday that suggests Obamacare is one reason this economic recovery has been the weakest in more than half a century.

“In a Philadelphia Fed survey of regional manufacturers out Thursday, 18% said they employ fewer workers due to the Affordable Care Act than they would in its absence. Just 3% say employment levels are higher as a result.

“Further, 18% said part-timers make up a greater share of workers due to ObamaCare, which absolves employers of responsibility for health care for those who work fewer than 30 hours a week. Just 1.5% said they've scaled back part-time work in response.”

It’s worse when you look at who is hurt the most: Those who can least afford it.

“IBD's own analysis of hours-worked data that businesses report to the Labor Department shows that ObamaCare's mandate is having its biggest impact on low-wage sectors. Among private industries where pay averages up to about $14.50 an hour, the average workweek has sunk to 27.4 hours, undercutting the record low seen at the depth of the recession in 2009.

“One limit to ObamaCare's economic drag is the possibility of evading its mandates by outsourcing work. The Fed surveys show that to be a popular tactic.

“In the Philadelphia area, 14% of manufacturers said they've boosted outsourcing on account of ObamaCare vs. 3% outsourcing less. In the New York region, 19% of manufacturers and 9% of service firms say they've stepped up outsourcing in response.”

The Wall Street Journal wrote of the results, along with similar results from the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta:

“Liberals will dismiss this as merely anecdotal or of minor impact, but it makes sense that ObamaCare's labor effects would be concentrated in some industries with relatively low-wage or marginal workers. The data points also help explain why the number of people employed part-time surged by 12% during the recession but the rate hasn't fallen even as the economy has improved. Or why labor force participation is the lowest since the late 1970s. . . .

“People are responding at least in part to the incentives to work fewer hours or not at all, as the research of University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan on marginal tax rates has shown. But there are also simply fewer jobs available that would have been created in the past, as the Fed surveys show.”

Remember, Obamacare has led to some people gaining health coverage – but only about two million who didn’t already have coverage found insurance through the government-run “exchanges” at the heart of the scheme. Meanwhile, far more people will probably see their coverage become costlier, even unaffordable, in the next few years, say analysts. This illustrates that Obamacare is a bad trade-off just on its own health-care terms.

Add to that the depressing effect it has on whether you’ll find a job, and the news is, well, depressing.