Posted on 03/28/2010 12:49:40 AM PDT by SmartInsight
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation's top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses. Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances -- a move one committee Republicans describes as "an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats' flawed health care reform legislation."
In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the companies -- so far, they include AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M -- say a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees. In turn, employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.
The news is an embarrassment for Democrats. As President Obama and congressional leaders tout the purported benefits of the new health care law, some of the nation's biggest companies are saying it will mean higher costs and fewer benefits -- not exactly what Democrats want to hear in the days after their historic victory.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
10 bucks says the higher ups at these companies mostly voted Obama.
Hard to feel sorry for them.
Are corporations supposed to pretend that these costs do not exist? This is very strange business, scolding executives for stating the obvious. Is everyone supposed to pretend really, really hard that there really is a halo around Obama’s head and that rainbows and unicorns are everywhere?
Exactly. MOST of these companies voted for “hopeychangey”..especially tech companies. AT&T is a different matter because if you check out their political contributions, it’s exactly down the line for Dems and GOP..same way Trump gave to both parties equally.
“Are corporations supposed to pretend that these costs do not exist? This is very strange business, scolding executives for stating the obvious”
Not only that, but I saw someone on the business chanel making the point that by the Sarbane-Oxley law, regulating reporting requirements for companies, the CEOs were required by law to do this, i.e. report on the impact. And they wouldn’t be over or understating it, because also per Sarbane-Oxley, the CEOs have to take personal responsibility for the accuracy, under penalty of law.
Dems are just upset that the truth comes out.
When’s the Reichstag fire and the Enabling Acts?
Only in the public sector could such a slug as Henry Waxman have the balls to demand anything of anyone, except their preference for paper or plastic.
But the big wigs just get golden parachutes. It’s the people down the ranks who will lose.
I’m starting to get a sense this is going to go very, very badly for the Democrats. Worse than anyone has expected.
There was a lot of genuine wishing for a better future behind the moderates who voted for Obama, and that fantasy could have been sustained a long while longer with judicious politics.
Instead, the Democrats forced through a “win” that’s about to hit the brick wall of reality very hard.
Then the fantasy is gone, and the people who believed in it will be angry. Those are the people the Democrats need to win elections.
They may lose a lot more in November than anyone has been anticipating.
Actually, if I saw him at the end of the line, I’d self-bag.
Unicorns that crap rainbow colored skittles, that is.
Hitler battled the communists and won, so private property was allowed, although controlled, operated as Hitler desired (Speer ran industry). If corporations like fascistic operational style because of its efficiency and ownership features, a marxist regime will reject their desires and simply nationalize them, especially if they do not appreciate govt. policies and mandates.
Managed care (the term originated there) originated in the thirties under Italian fascism for the industries in Northern Italy, the region that built their Navy, one-at-a time military aircraft, and military armaments and automobiles, etc...the Italian healthcare system was designed by the corporations for their benefit and approved by Mussolini. Managed care was quasi-governmental. Obamacare is for the current administrations’ benefit, period.
The Obama administration may threaten nationalization of corporations objecting to Obamacare. An epic struggle for the survival of private property is at hand, both industrially and with commercial/private property. Property rights are the first thing protected in our Constitution..the justification of the country was to protect property rights. Fannie and Freddie now are fully governmental and the taxpayer has all liabilities. We are being charged for the very marxism being imposed on us. Everything is up for grabs, apparently, and the govt. is doing most of the grabbing and consigning the rest to our creditors (China given eminent domain as collateralization of US equities).
That pig nosed freak doesn't have the authority to demand anything. They should spit in his eye and say no to anything he "demands".
Yes, they are becoming more totalitarian by the day.
I hope Drudge puts that headline, at least, in red near the top if not front-and-center with a siren.
“I’m starting to get a sense this is going to go very, very badly for the Democrats. Worse than anyone has expected”.
I dunno. At the end of this little dust-up, it’ll probably be another case of “oh well, they have billions, they can afford a few hundred million.
^^^^^
The sheer arrogance of these congressites is just amazing...as if the execs at CAT, Deere, and ATT don’t have corporate level accountants and attorneys and don’t know how things are treated under accounting laws.
“Instead, the Democrats forced through a “win” that’s about to hit the brick wall of reality very hard. Then the fantasy is gone, and the people who believed in it will be angry.”
Exactly. As KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov explains in this classic video, the true believers in Communism become the most angry (disenchanted) when REALITY finally hits them. When the “military boot” hits them in the butt, the drones FLIP and become enraged at the Communist FALSE PROMISE of Utopia. They finally wake up, and get sent to the gulag where they pose no danger to the regime.
Omarxist is trying to DELAY this “wake up” moment as long as possible. When you hit companies with a $1 billion NEW TAX, and they announce how many employees they must fire, this is direct evidence (cause and effect) that Marxism is a destructive ideology. Omarxist must suppress this.
So he sends a man with mammoth nostrils to threaten the companies. Problem is, as Marxism spreads, Omoslem cannot suppress these damage reports for long. As more workers get fired amidst this recession, Otraitor cannot fool them forever.
I can’t wait until scruffy 20-year-old liberal NYU students working the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store wake up and rage against Omoslem. Once those pansies turn on you, watch out.
Here’s the video, Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN0By0xbst8
It’d be interesting to go over to Center for Responsive Politics and see if any of these companies gave hefty contributions to the rats.
At any rate, this truly is the act of a tyrannical government. I think the companies should just give congress the finger.
Waxman..he’s the feculent, little pig faced man..
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