Posted on 03/28/2010 10:37:37 AM PDT by American Dream 246
Dems Threaten Congressional Show Trials After US Companies Leak Real Economic Damage of Obamacare
Late last week several US corporations leaked how the democrat’s health care bill will kill their businesses. The radicals in Congress were not pleased that these corporations would go public with this devastating information. In response, democrats threatened to call for Congressional show trials to publicly humiliate these corporations. The Wall Street Journal reported:
It’s been a banner week for Democrats: ObamaCare passed Congress in its final form on Thursday night, and the returns are already rolling in. Yesterday AT&T announced that it will be forced to make a $1 billion writedown due solely to the health bill, in what has become a wave of such corporate losses.
This wholesale destruction of wealth and capital came with more than ample warning. Turning over every couch cushion to make their new entitlement look affordable under Beltway accounting rules, Democrats decided to raise taxes on companies that do the public service of offering prescription drug benefits to their retirees instead of dumping them into Medicare. We and others warned this would lead to AT&T-like results, but like so many other ObamaCare objections Democrats waved them off as self-serving or “political.”
…Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”
In other words, shoot the messenger. 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.
On top of AT&T’s $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks.
The last paragraph says it all about the democrat’s trickery:
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.
Byron York at The Washington Examiner has more on the show trials.
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.”
…Waxman has ordered the executives to explain themselves at an April 21 hearing before the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative subcommittee. That subcommittee just happens to be chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat who held out his vote on health care reform until a few hours before final passage on March 21, giving the bill’s opponents the unfounded hope that he might vote against it.
Waxman’s demands came Friday in letters to several executives. “After the president signed the health care reform bill into law, your company announced that provisions in the law could adversely affect your ability to provide health insurance,” Waxman wrote to Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T. A few hours before Waxman sent his letter, AT&T announced it will take a $1 billion charge against earnings because of the tax provision in the new health bill. AT&T also said it will be “evaluating prospective changes” to its health care benefits for all workers…
Waxman’s request could prove particularly troubling for the companies. The executives will undoubtedly view such documents as confidential, but if they fail to give Waxman everything he wants, they run the risk of subpoenas and threats from the chairman. And all as punishment for making a business decision in light of a new tax situation.
These democrats in Washington are nothing but thugs. They’ll try anything to keep the truth from coming out about their disastrous legislation.
alas, you have nailed it, randita.
We all will have to make our own phones, tractors, steel, etc out back in the dark of night, using scrap from the junk yard. Then the .gov will tax us for doing so, and jail us for not paying into a health care plan.
They will also tax us for the turnips we grow in our pitiful li’l garden plots.
Hmmm... tenant/peasant/sharecroppers we all will be, and considering the death of modern medicine, the dark age pestilences will follow.
Seventh Seal, anyone?
But, they have such good intentions, you know? Disgusted here in upstate NY.
One thought about corporate CEO’s. Who owns corporations? Stockholders? And who owns stock in these so called American corporations? Mutual Funds own quite a bit.....Who are the majority owners of these mutual funds? That would be where the power of the company lies.... it’s possible for an American company not to be controlled by Americans even if the CEO is American.
In my humble opinion, only income producers should be allowed to vote. The true “Pauls” (income recipients from income producers) should be prohibited.
The latter includes me and my beloved, by the way, since we are now stuck with medicare and social security, but we would have done our job over the past 50 years we were self-employed, creating a lot of good jobs for others.
Maybe we should have a new slogan? Never trust anyone on the .gov payroll, or over 65.
Started looking up a few and seems they gave to John MC Cain - Romney et.al.....
Hey, great idea, thanks!
And if those CEOs are smart, they will remember the lesson of Wyatt's Torch. "Come and take it. I left it just the way I found it."
Communist bastards. In every aspect.
Several ideas had been tossed around, your included.
I am not sure that just because one falls off the producing ranks due to age they should not be allowed to vote.
That said, we could start with NOT allowing career welfare types, illegals (duh!, it is already illegal to vote for them), dead people, and so on.
I don’t have much hope in the short term though, as clearly there will be a push this year to get anybody, with a pulse or not, to vote IF they pull the left lever.
Come November , like Christ cleansed the Temple, we’ll cleanse Congress of their stench.
Ah Corps havig Buyers remorse are they.
But as usual it is the middle class workers that get hit the hardest.
Now what EXCUSE will Zero use to take over these businesses.
Big deal. I want actual trials, of Democrats, after the November elections.
Thanks, I’ll “borrow” that.
It may be an oppurtunity for companies to humiliate the demons if they show up with the right ammo.
They could follow the Howard Hughes example when he told congress to go to hell.
The corporation involved have an obligation to their shareholders to disclose this type of information and hit to the bottom line this year - prior earnings estimates are impacted, big time. It’s the right and fair thing to do, plus its probably legally necessary under corporate guidelines, etc.
Having hearings is just more fed government BS.
Excellent idea. I wonder if they would be allowed to continue once the demons figured out what they were doing. Would be interesting. These are very interesting times. Frighteningly interesting.
More evidence that they don’t plan to have elections.
We need a few of these heads of large corporations to attend these hearings.
Then.....when it is their turn before the Inquisition to tell it straight to the TV cameras that Waxman works for them and the American people. We do not answer to him - the elected representative, but he to them and tell Waxman to shove it.
Then get up and walk out.
Our officials in DC are way too cocky and self-important. Vote the bastards out while it can be done.
If I were the head of one of these companies that was dragged in for a show trial, I would not be polite and allow the Rat SOB’s to lecture me about not lying down and taking it.
I more than strongly suspect that's just another brazenly outrageous lie. BUT, if it is true, then these companies would be making FALSE REPORTS to the SEC. Which I think (?) would be a pretty serious violation of law. So it will be interesting to see if the Dims actually ever make a charge of false filings. If they don't, they will as much as prove themselves (yet again) to be liars.
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