Posted on 11/10/2012 1:41:38 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The victory by Barack Obama on election night has resulted in a huge wave of firings and layoffs all over America. A large number of businesses seem to have suddenly shifted into panic mode. The number of layoff announcements that we have seen in the last 48 hours has been absolutely shocking. So why is this happening? Well, the truth is that the federal government is absolutely suffocating small businesses all over America with rules, regulations and taxes. If you have never tried to run a small business, then you have no idea how oppressive this system actually is for people that are trying to run small businesses successfully. It has steadily gotten worse over the years no matter who has been in the White House and no matter who has controlled Congress. So we shouldn’t put 100% of the blame on Obama. Bush massively expanded government and made things harder on small business people too. But what many small business people were looking for on this election day was just a little bit of help. Many were desperately holding out hope that Obamacare would be repealed so that they would not have to get rid of some of their employees. Many were hoping to get a little bit of relief from the crippling regulations and taxes that are absolutely crushing them. But now that Barack Obama has been given another four years, they understand that there is no hope on the horizon and that things are only going to get worse. So they are making the hard decisions that they feel are necessary in order to survive in this economic environment.
And I certainly don’t blame them. You only want to have employees if you can make a profit on them. And in this environment it is getting harder than ever to make a profit on an employee. You see, the truth is that what you cost your employer goes far beyond your salary or your hourly wage. I think many of you would be absolutely shocked if you learned how much it actually costs your employer to employ you. And now thanks to Obamacare, that cost is going to go up even more.
Many businesses are not even feasible at all in this economic environment. Many small businesses had been holding out hope that somehow this election might turn things around and make it possible for them to keep going, but when Obama won it was kind of like the straw that broke the camel’s back.
You can’t do what the federal government and the state governments are doing to us and expect to have a thriving economy. They are choking the life out of us.
New businesses and small businesses are supposed to be at the heart of our economic system. Unfortunately, the environment that has been created is absolutely killing them. This is a recipe for disaster.
In a previous article, I noted that the number of jobs created at new businesses in 2010 in the United States wasless than half of what it was back in the year 2000.
Now we can expect that number to get even worse and we can expect large numbers of small businesses to shrink in size or close their doors completely.
The following is a list of some of the post-election firings and layoffs that we have seen since Tuesday night…
#1 Utah
"A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.
The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.
The layoffs are necessary because of the president’s “war on coal,” the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down “204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014″ and for drastically reducing the market for coal."
#2 Ohio
"I work for the oldest and largest health insurer in the state of Ohio in the underwriting department. At 9 a.m.this morning, my department (about 50) were called into a meeting in the executive boardroom. We were informed that due to a provision in the healthcare ‘reform’ effective 2014 called guarantee issue, our services would no longer be needed, and we were offered severance So Obama got to keep his job, and we lost ours. It is maddening that some tyrant 400 miles away can have such a ruinous effect on peoples lives."
#3 Nevada
"A Las Vegas business owner with 114 employees fired 22 workers today, apparently as a direct result of President Obama’s re-election.
“David” (he asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) told Host Kevin Wall on 100.5 KXNT that “elections have consequences” and that “at the end of the day, I need to survive.”
Here’s an excerpt from the interview. Click the audio tab below to hear even more from this compelling conversation:
“I’ve done my share of educating my employees. I never tell them which way to vote. I believe in the free system we have, I believe in the right to choose who they want to be president, but I did explain as a business owner that I have always put my employees first. I always made sure that when I went without a paycheck that [I] made sure they were paid. And I explained that I always put them first and unfortunately I’m at a point where I’m being forced to have to worry about me and my family now and a business that I built from just me to 114 employees."
#4 Posted below is a list of layoff headlines from the past few days that was posted on AmericanThinker.com…
Obama was “fired up” and so were the voters, and so now, the mass firings begin. Here’s a collection of today’s headlines. Please say a prayer for the families who will be suffering. Had Romney won, many of these companies would now be hiring.
Teco Coal officials announce layoffs
Momentive Inc plans temporary layoffs for 150
Wilkes-Barre officials to announce mandatory layoffs
600 layoffs at Groupon
More layoffs announced at Aniston Weapons Incinerator
Murray Energy confirms 150 layoffs at 3 subsidiaries
130 laid off in Minnesota dairy plant closure
Stanford brake plant to lay off 75
Turbocare, Oce to lay off more than 220 workers
ATI plans to lay off 172 workers in North Richland Hills
SpaceX claims its first victims as Rocketdyne lays off 100
Providence Journal lays off 23 full-time employees
CVPH lays off 17
New Energy lays off 40 employees
102 Utah miners laid off because of ‘war on coal’, company says
US Cellular drops Chicago, cuts 640 jobs
Career Education to cut 900 jobs, close 23 campuses
Vestas to cut 3,000 more jobs
First Energy to cut 400 jobs by 2016
Mine owner blames Obama for layoffs (54 fired last night)
Canceled program costs 115 jobs at Ohio air base
AMD trims Austin workforce – 400 jobs slashed
100 workers lose jobs as Caterpillar closes plant in Minnesota
Exide to lay off 150 workers
TE Connectivity to close Guilford plant, lay off 620
More Layoffs for Major Wind Company (3,000 jobs cut)
Cigna to lay off 1,300 workers worldwide
Ameridose to lay off hundreds of workers
#5 According to the Blaze, the following major corporations have all announced layoffs in just the past two days…
Energizer
Exide Technologies
Westinghouse
Research in Motion Limited
Lightyear Network Solutions
Providence Journal
Hawker Beechcraft
Boeing (30% of their management staff)
CVPH Medical Center
US Cellular
Momentive Performance Materials
Rocketdyne
Brake Parts
Vestas Wind Systems
Husqvarna
Center for Hospice New York
Bristol-Meyers
OCE North America
Darden Restaurants
West Ridge Mine
United Blood Services Gulf
You can get the rest of the details right here.
#6 The following is a list of companies that will be laying off workers just because of Obamacare that was compiled by FreedomWorks…
Dana Holding Corp.
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. The company will have to cover the additional $24 million cost somehow, which will likely equate to numerous cuts in their current workforce of 25,500 worldwide.
Stryker
One of the biggest medical device manufacturers in the world, Stryker will close their facility in Orchard Park, New York, eliminating 96 jobs in December. Worse, they plan on countering the medical device tax in Obamacare by slashing 5% of their global workforce - an estimated 1,170 positions.
Boston Scientific
In October of 2009, Boston Scientific CEO Ray Elliott, warned that proposed taxes in the health care reform bill could “lead to significant job losses” for his company. Nearly two years later, Elliott announced that the company would be cutting anywhere between 1,200 and 1,400 jobs, while simultaneously shifting investments and workers overseas – to China.
Medtronic
In March of 2010, medical device maker Medtronic warned that Obamacare taxes could result in a reduction of precisely 1,000 jobs. That plan became reality when the company cut 500 positions over the summer, with another 500 set for the end of 2013.
Others
A short list of other companies facing future layoffs at the hands of Obamacare: •Smith & Nephew – 770 layoffs •Abbott Labs – 700 layoffs •Covidien – 595 layoffs •Kinetic Concepts – 427 layoffs •St. Jude Medical – 300 layoffs •Hill Rom – 200 layoffs
A lot of other businesses are going to reduce the number of employees they have or reduce the average work week in order to avoid the Obamacare insurance coverage mandate that will soon be implemented.
This is how CNSNews.com describes the choice that many employers will be facing…
That section, known as the employer mandate, requires any business with 50 or more full-time employees to provide at least the minimum level of government-defined health coverage to those employees. In other words, a business must provide insurance if it has 50 or more employees working an average of just 30 hours per week, which is 10 hours per week fewer than the traditional 40-hour work week.
Thus, by cutting employees’ hours to ensure they average less than the 30 per week, employers could potentially avoid the cost of providing the minimum insurance levels mandated by Obamacare.
So if your company trims the number of workers to just under 50 or starts going to “29 hour work weeks”, then you will know who to blame.
All of this is complete and utter insanity. We are committing national economic suicide.
But perhaps we deserve this. After all, Americans willingly chose their leaders on election day. It is getting harder and harder to deny that our politicians are truly a reflection of who we are as a nation.
The American people chose this path, and now we get to see where it leads us.
The regulations and fees finally forced me out in 2010.
Its only going to get worse now and quickly.
1099. Exactly. Many, many companies are looking at the 1099 option to keep from having to pay ObamaCare taxes. I know a number of CPAs and every last one of them has said so far that seems to be the only option outside of just closing down.
LOL FRiend. I have the “surviving socialism” pinglist. Send me a note and I’ll fix you up. FReeper Kartographer does the prepping pinglist.
ncpatriot you have been added.
rattle can silver lining: the republicans are no help
The reality is that after 32 years of work and another 17 to go, I will have nothing at the end. I will guarantee you that in the next 4 years we will see the seizure of all 401k and 403b accounts with the proceeds to go into a national fund that will pay out a defined benefit. Significantly less than what I might have otherwise had at age 67...if I live that long. If I die before the requisite age my portion will be forfeited and my family gets nothing....just like Socialist Security.
I was going to retire fat, drunk, and happy. Not anymore.
That’s the future for me.....not very pleasant.
Yes I agree that the government will make a move on our 401k & 403b plans. I don’t expect that they will just take them like they did in Argentina, but expect them to become highly taxed. There’s no way that they are going to let trillions of dollars go tax-free to us I’m sorry to say.
Ann Coulter was right.....we have to end women voting.
The decline of America started with the enactment of Amendment(s) 16, 17, & 19
Don’t laugh too hard, there are liberals who say Obama is pro-business.
But he is: too big to fail codified into law; first-to-file patent law; expansion upon expansion of copyright in the interest not of actual authors and artists, but of publishers; bailouts; loan guarantees; . . .
Pro-business isn't the same as pro-market. (Read Luigi Zingales's A Capitalism for the People -- Zignales, whom Sarah Palin quoted approvingly in America by Heart even before he wrote his own book popularizing his ideas, makes a sharp distinction between pro-market and pro-business on the basis of seeing crony capitalism in all its inglory in his native Italy.)
But he “built that” avalance!!!
My solution: (yeah, I know these don't have a prayer...)
1. Throw the entire tax code out the window and replace it with a flat tax. (The Fair Tax has a few flaws.) Set the rate at 17% (a la Friedman) for individuals and 15% for corporations. Now everyone has something in the game.
2. A current events test and income tax payment to vote. If you don't pay any taxes, you don't vote. And if you're not smart enough to discuss issues, you shouldn't vote.
3. Recognize that the purpose of the Federal gov't is the policing of property rights and provide social overhead capital. (Charles Beard's An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution). Everything else (EPA, SBA, FEMA, Freddie and Fannie, etc.) is history. The gov't should NEVER compete with private industry.
This would be a start. Me? I'd make a horrible President, but I'd be a pretty damn good dictator...
Most of the people in and around Detroit and Dearborn are too stupid, ignorant, and union-upped to give a damn about what is really going on around them.
They are the ‘gimme/gimme more’ generation of welfare-like parasites who didn’t realize that they were not just biting the hand that feeds them, but actually biting if off.
No hand, no handouts.
When Detroit elected marxists like Mary Ann Mahaffey and Erma Henderson to run their City Council, along with Carl Levin, Jackie Vaughan, etc, they sealed their fate.
And keeping the veteran communist John Conyers in office despite his over 50-year record of supporting the Communist Party USA and the Socialist Workers Party, then later the Workers World Party, shows that the voters up there have no brains. They are now getting what they deserve for betraying their country.
Guess the businesses didn’t want to encourage their soon to be fired workers to vote for Obama.
Groupon had 600 Employees? Really?
I thought Groupon was a couple of guys in a basement making extra money on the Internet.
I’m a 1099 employee working part time for a small company.
Just talked to the owner. Times are tough and he will be closing a product repair shop (2 F/T Jobs eliminated) and concentrate on Internet Sales. His primary brick and mortar sales / rental business is down 40% from two years ago.
He anticipates the next Obama term will be sink or swim for the Company. Of course I’ve been telling him that for years. Let’s just say he really gets it now.
I spoke to a recent emmigrant to America. He came from Mumbai and was in his late 50s. He delightedly voted for Obama because Romney (he couldn’t pronounce the name - do you think that influenced his vote a little?) would take away his “social” and “put down his [this guy’s] money”.
In the 3rd World the rich really do control the laws and use them against the poor. It really is a zero sum game. This is the mentality that Democrats appeal to. If crony capitalism and activist judges exist the poor see that and they want a protector. That the protector and the rapist are one and the same they don’t seem to get.
I know we hope to educate people and I always cling to that hope myself, but I don’t think so. Let me share another anecdote with you:
A single woman I know is a high earner (top 5%) very pro-family. To hear her talk you’d think she was at worst a moderate. She voted for Obama, twice despite the fact that she is getting killed by taxes, insurance, etc. She’s not stupid. She’s a successful business person.
The trouble is she’s a social liberal. I don’t mean by policy positions, but by group dynamics. She must fit in. She is materialistic and a rabid gossip. Here’s a taste of her thinking:
FUBU jeans is a black owned company. FUBU - stands for Five Urban Brothers United, but there is a rumor it stands for For Us By Us. Here’s the rumor: Tommy Hilfiger went on Oprah and arrogantly stated that he doesn’t make clothes for black people. In a rage a black entrepreneur responded by founding FUBU, a successful company.
The story isn’t true, yet this woman perpetuates it. She told it to me and my kids and we were incredulous. Even if Tommy H. felt that way what businessman would go public with that kind of talk? We looked it up and found that he really did go on Oprah, but to refute it and that Oprah said, “It never happened” and went on to say that Tommy’s a good person, not racist, etc.
We showed this woman the info, along with all the supporting links. Despite all the evidence, despite his own protestations and the words of Oprah here was her response: “I don’t care. He’s still a jerk.”
That’s what we’re up against. The franchise is too broad. We have democracy and we’re paying for it dearly.
That’s how revolutions go. We better hope for a Pinochet, because the Leftist revolutions know no end.
Works for me. But you have to dismantle the Federal Reserve while you're at it. Fiat money and a debtor society is something our children will want to avoid in the rebuild.
NO. 1, I would go through the parking lot and fire anyone with an Obama sticker on the bumper.
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