Obamacare: Told You So (Updated)

What happens when you make it more expensive to hire people?  Businesses hire fewer people.  Weird, isn't it?

With 20 or so new or higher taxes set to be implemented, ranging from a $123 billion surtax on investment income, through the $20 billion medical device tax, all the way down to the $600 million executive compensation limit, Obamacare will be a nearly unbearable tax burden on the economy.

Because what this roaring economy really needs is more burdensome taxation and regulation to prevent it from growing too quickly.

As recently as a week ago, a global auto parts manufacturing company in Ohio known as Dana Holding Corp., warned their employees of potential layoffs, citing "$24 million over the next six years in additional U.S. health care expenses".  After laying off several white collar staffers, company insiders have hinted at more to come.  

When you tax something, you get less of it.  So, of course, Obamacare includes a tax on the manufacture and development of medical equipment, because the last thing we want is American companies developing and manufacturing medical equipment!

Welch Allyn, a company that manufactures medical diagnostic equipment in central New York, announced in September that they would be laying off 275 employees, or roughly 10% of their workforce over the next three years.  One of the major reasons discussed for the layoffs was a proactive response to the Medical Device Tax mandated by the new healthcare law.

Thanks, Obama voters!


UPDATE (11NOV12): John Schnatter, founder and CEO of Papa John's, says Obamacare will increase the cost of hiring employees and force his company to cut employees' hours.

A day after Barack Obama earned a second term in the White House, Papa John's founder and CEO John Schnatter said the president's signature health-care reform law would increase his business costs and possibly result in employees' hours being cut.

In August, he made national headlines after telling shareholders the Affordable Care Act — commonly known as Obamacare — would result in a 10- to 14-cent increase for customers buying a pizza.
"I got in a bunch of trouble for this," he told the students. "That's what you do, is you pass on costs. Unfortunately, I don't think people know what they're going to pay for this."

No kidding.  For some reason, a percentage of the population can't seem to understand that nothing is free.  They think whatever government gives them costs nothing.  That percentage of the population seems to be growing.

Schnatter, a Mitt Romney supporter and fundraiser, said he was not "pro or against" the reform law [he seems pretty clearly against ~ OS] but likened the government's involvement in health care to its operation of the U.S. Postal Service, saying "the worst entity in the world for running the thing is the government." [we agree there ~ OS]

"We're all going to pay for it," he said, estimating the new law would cost the business $5 million to $8 million annually.

Under the Affordable Care Act, full-time employees — those working 30 hours or more per week — would have to be provided with insurance at companies with more than 50 workers. Schnatter said it was likely that some franchise owners would reduce employees' hours in order to avoid having to cover them.

"That's probably what's going to happen," he said. "It's common sense. That's what I call lose-lose."

Yes, it's common sense, which is very rare in DC.

UPDATE (13NOV12): More businesses are cutting employees' hours.

Last month Darden Restaurants — which employs 185,000 people at nearly 2,000 Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse and Red Lobster restaurants — revealed that it was scaling back many of its employees' workweeks to 28 hours.

This month Kroger — the grocer that employs 350,000 people — announced that existing part-time workers and new hires would be limited to working 28 hours per week.

"Kroger is doing this to avoid paying for full-time health care for employees who currently only receive part-time benefits," one employee explains. "And (so) they will not get hit with the $3,000 penalty."

How have "Liberals" reacted to this?  Why, those evil, greedy, Capitalist pigs are robbing the workers!  Boycott!

Many progressives are today organizing a boycott over Papa John’s threat to cut worker hours in response to President Obama’s re-election. John Schnatter, the CEO of Papa John’s, said that as a result of Obama’s re-election, and the subsequent implementation of Obamacare, he would consider cutting his employees hours. Scnatter's comments immediately created controversy, and many Twitter and Facebook users are now promising to boycott the pizza chain.

The writer is either ignorant, or lying to his readers.  Schnatter doesn't set anyones hours.  Franchise (i.e. small business) owners control employees' hours.  They're the ones who have to figure out how to make ends meet, and Obamacare makes that more difficult.  Schnatter merely predicted - based on obvious economic reality - what most franchise owners will do.

Who does this hurt most?

Millions across the country are likely to be affected by the mandate — and the vast majority of these will be lower middle class people who desperately need that extra income to make ends meet.

In other words ObamaCare's "employer mandate" will wind up hurting the very people Obama claims to be fighting for — reducing their take-home pay at a time when loose monetary policy is already whittling away at the value of every dollar they earn.

When will Americans learn that there is no free lunch?  When government offers you something for "free", you end up paying for it in other ways.