Posted on 03/27/2010 4:44:27 PM PDT by Mount Athos
This past week several big companies, including Caterpillar, Verizon, and AT&T, announced that ObamaCare would cost them millions of dollars this year. To pay for it they variously suggested layoffs and benefits reductions. Analysts suggest that the total first-quarter hit to S&P 500 firms will be $4.5 billion.
Well, Democrats can't stand to have their precious economy-destroying healthcare program criticized in its very first week, so they've announced an "investigation" into the claims. Late yesterday, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation sent letters to the CEOs of AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co, and Verizon asking them to appear for a hearing on their claims. In the letters, Waxman and Stupak ask for company documents including accounting analyses and the internal emails of all "senior company officials" related to the projected costs of ObamaCare. How serious are they? The letter actually defines "senior company officials."
Power Line has a copy of one of the letters.
Not content with their victory, Democrats won't rest until they've beaten down anyone who points out the devastation caused by their anti-prosperity policies. This will be as much of an "investigation" as the Democrats' demonization of oil company CEOs last summer or Toyota execs more recently.
They aren’t required to do squat without a subpoena. I suggest the middle finger salute.
Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don't like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet....The Democratic political calculation with ObamaCare is the proverbial boiling frog: Gradually introduce a health-care entitlement by hiding the true costs, hook the middle class on new subsidies until they become unrepealable, but try to delay the adverse consequences and major new tax hikes so voters don't make the connection between their policy and the economic wreckage. But their bill was such a shoddy, jerry-rigged piece of work that the damage is coming sooner than even some critics expected.
Who you going to believe? CEOs and CFOs running their corporations in accordance with required accounting rules and SEC regulations? Or slimy Dem Senators and Representatives who say the "law was designed to bring costs down"? The incompetent Dems clearly shot themselves in the foot with a stinker of a bill that nobody read, much less understood. Most people in politics, especially Dems, have no real-world experience upon which to predict the outcomes of their laws.
Great post, and good work by the WSJ.
The only LEAGLE TAX REVOLT we have is to CUT OUR SPENDING.
Tell Government to STOP THEIR OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING.
All Taxes are collected when we, As Consumers, exchange our Hard Earned Money for goods and services.
We Must Cut our spending to the bare minimum and send a message to all Governments.
DO NOT put your money in the bank. Bury it in the “Back Yard.”
DO NOT buy into “The Cashless Society “. Use Cash before Cash become Illegal hold.
DO NOT put any more money into your IRA or 401k. Bury it in the “Back Yard”
DO NOT go into Debt. Buy used.
Hope they Change their donations to 0
Yup and it looks like reality is going to knck the crap out of their fantasyland/lying projections. How much is this going to cost McDonalds, Wal Mart etc where Obama lovers shop? Each increase should be well advertised as you walk in the door to the establishment along with who to blame and who to call to complain.
I think I should set up a truckload sale of discount torches, pitchforks, tar,feathers, even boiled rope in the parking lots or in front of the unemployment office.
By increasing employer personnel costs, this law will almost certainly result in more people losing their jobs and thus their employer provided health insurance!
Just once I’d like to see these CEOs head up to Capitol Hill prepared to go on the offense and take Congress to task for overregulating and screwing up every industry in the country.
Toyota execs should have pointed out that Congress has killed more people with their CAFE standards than were killed with defective vehicles. Oil execs should point out that it is in fact regulations of the Congress & EPA causing the high price of oil.
When Congressional members were chewing out the auto executives for using private planes, the execs should have pointed that every member of Congress is entitled to lease a car of his or her choice, plus gas, and then read off the list of the makes and models that our elected officials have chosen for themselves at taxpayer expense.
Instead what we get is these arrogant Congressional buffoons pontificating and these CEOs looking as if they’ve been called to the principal’s office. It makes me think some of these CEOs are indeed making too much if they can’t defend their industries and companies when it counts. The best way to stop these bullies is to stand up to them. And we’ve all seen just how thin-skinned these members of Congress are when confronted.
I looked at the letter from Henry "The Nose" Waxman, also signed by Bart “Baby killer” Stupak, along with all documentation and accounting they are demanding they submit.
AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co, and Verizon should tell Henry and Bart to stick it and that they are not going to show and the only documentation they would submit is old toilet paper.
Well, there is the old standby of "unintended consequences", but I guess you are looking for something more explicit. Probably "boomerang effect" says part of what you want to say, so that might be a starting point to think from. Maybe the "kick in the ass effect" or others that give some of the same connotations.
“Well, Democrats can’t stand to have their precious economy-destroying healthcare program criticized in its very first week,......”
You got to remember what is their, Progress Socialist, “End Game”.
PUPLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
After all the finger pointing, the Progress Socialist will say, “see, if you had PUPLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM” You “Companies” would not have to take loses or lay people off. But they, Progress Socialist, will hide the fact that corporate taxes will go throw the roof and more “companies” will move “off Shore”.
Is there a medical term for a treatment that gives the opposite of the desired effect?
If they fly into Washington on company jets, will they be thrashed and scolded like the auto CEO’s and have the government put another nail in the coffin of the airline industry?
press release:
AT&T said Friday that the charge reflected changes to how Medicare subsidies are taxed. Companies say the health care overhaul will require them to start paying taxes next year on a subsidy they receive for retiree drug coverage.
A White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Thursday that the tax law closed a loophole.
Under the 2003 Medicare prescription drug program, companies that provide prescription drug benefits for retirees have been able to receive subsidies covering 28 percent of eligible costs. But they could deduct the entire amount they spent on these drug benefits — including the subsidies — from their taxable income.
The new law allows companies to deduct only the 72 percent they spent.
The corporations are as yellow bellied as the Repbulicans.
The only thing you are missing is that the impossibility to comply is fully intentional. Ayn Rand described the situation well:
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We *want* them broken. You’d better get it straight That it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against? then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted ? and you create a nation of law-breakers ? and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Ch. III, “White Blackmail”
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