Dayhoff Soundtrack: False Start: Employers Mulling Layoffs, Communist Leader's Endorsement Among Early ObamaCare Highlights

Friday, March 26, 2010

False Start: Employers Mulling Layoffs, Communist Leader's Endorsement Among Early ObamaCare Highlights

False Start: Employers Mulling Layoffs, Communist Leader's Endorsement Among Early ObamaCare Highlights

GOP Leader Memo: "Where Are The Jobs? Not In President Obama's Health Care Law"

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=178751

Washington, Mar 26 - While Americans continue to ask ‘where are the jobs?,’ Democrats in Washington have forced through a job-killing government takeover of health care propped up by backroom deals and phony accounting gimmicks. Last week, more than 130 economists sent a letter to President Obama and Congress warning that “the health care bill … will eliminate jobs, reduce hours and wages, and limit future job creation.” Washington Democrats, however, refused to listen to the American people or these experts, and now the damage ObamaCare will do to our economy is already being measured in the “billions.” Of course, there’s always the Fidel Castro’s endorsement of ObamaCare to buck up skittish Democrats. As House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) outlined in a memo yesterday, the only way to undo this mess is to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with reforms focused first on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.

The Associated Press notes that “the health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how the government subsidizes those benefits”:

“Companies Say Health Care Costs Hard to Swallow. … In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future. … As many as 1.5 million to 2 million retirees could lose the drug benefits provided by their former employer because of the tax changes, according to a study by the Moran Company, a health care consulting firm. … Consumers Energy, a Michigan gas and electric company with 2.9 million customers, said it will not take a big first-quarter charge because, like most utility companies, it can try to recover the added costs from its customers through rate hikes.”

Small businesses are being hit hard too: a piece that aired on CNN’s The Situation Room yesterday highlights the challenges ObamaCare poses for the nation’s entrepreneurs. Earlier this week, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that ObamaCare “will sell itself.” Well, here’s how it’s playing around the country today:

Another Midwest manufacturer takes a multi-million dollar hit from Obamacare. “West Chester-based AK Steel Corp. said Tuesday it will take a first-quarter non-cash charge of about $31 million, stemming from the health care reform act passed by Congress March 21…” (Business Courier of Cincinnati, 3/24/10)

Major restaurant chains “have not budgeted for this,” will be “dramatically impacted.” “Dallas-based Brinker International, which operates restaurant chains such as Chili’s and On the Border, offers a mini-medical plan to its wait staff of 80,000, said Travis L. Sartain, an employee benefits broker at McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP in Dallas. ‘In no way, shape, or form is it the robust coverage included in this health care reform,’ said Sartain, who found the plan for Brinker. Companies like Brinker ‘have not budgeted for this. In our opinion, they will be dramatically impacted due to this legislation.’” (Dallas Morning News, 3/25/10)

Michigan businesses braces for “thousands of dollars in extra costs” and “tough hiring and firing decisions.” “Two groups representing Michigan businesses fear the most sweeping health care legislation passed in decades could burden them with thousands of dollars in extra costs and paperwork and prevent them from expanding their firms and hiring new workers. … The legislation will force business owners to make tough hiring and firing decisions, industry groups said. … Jim Hiller, owner of Hiller's Market, with seven locations in Metro Detroit, said his 800-employee business is most likely to suffer because it won't be eligible for the same subsidies small businesses may accrue. ‘Certainly (the legislation) will significantly increase our costs.” (The Detroit News, 3/26/10)

Grassroots revolt in the states continues – Georgia governor appoints special AG to protect Peach State citizens from ObamaCare mandates. “Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue said Thursday that he will bypass Democratic Attorney General Thurbert Baker and create a ‘special attorney general’ to sue the federal government over the health care overhaul, an order Baker refused. ‘Constitutionally, I believe he is obligated to represent the people of Georgia in these issues,’ Perdue said at a morning news conference. ‘He’s refused to do that. I can’t force him to do that.’ Perdue, however, said the state constitution permits him to work around Baker and appoint a special attorney general to file a lawsuit against the health care legislation President Barack Obama signed into law earlier this week.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/26/10)

Experts say ObamaCare doesn’t address physician shortage crisis. “There may not be enough doctors to see all of the people who are now covered. ‘I don’t think it’s going to encourage enough primary-care physicians,’ Dr. Robert Centor, the academic general internist at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and author of the DB’s Medical Rants blog, said of the health-care legislation.” (CNBC, 3/25/10)

Investor’s Business Daily editorial sheds some light on a past repeal effort led by one of Speaker Pelosi’s top lieutenants. “Once before there were ‘angry mobs’ reacting to government expansion of and into health care. They once greeted former House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski over the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, which expanded Medicare benefits and funded it with a supplemental tax. The Chicago Tribune of August 18, 1989, reported on how House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski "was booed and chased down a Chicago street Thursday morning by a group of senior citizens after he refused to talk with them about federal health insurance." .. Legislation to repeal was introduced in the House on Nov. 7, 1989, and passed by a voice vote. … An interesting historical footnote is that leading the protest against Rostenkowski was Jan Schakowsky — then director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens and currently a Democratic representative from the 9th Congressional District of Illinois and chief deputy whip to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” (Investor’s Business Daily, 3/25/10)

And finally, the slice surtax: “The price of a slice of pizza is gonna go up dramatically.” “At Paesan's Pizza in Latham, owner Frank Scavio says his company was planning to expand to two new locations, but those plans may be put on hold. He says, 'If we open up and go above the 50 person employee then yea, it will affect us and that's when we say OK when do we stop or do we continue to grow?" If they do opt to expand, Scavio says the customer may be the one to pay. ‘The price of a slice of pizza is gonna go up drastically.’” (CBS 6 Albany, 3/25/10)