Why the White House Is Panicking

Townhall.com ^ | February 15, 2014 | John C. Goodman

[Kaslin]

After delaying the employer mandate to provide Obamacare health insurance to all full time employees for a year, the administration has delayed the mandate for medium size business for a second year. It has also relaxed the mandate for large businesses (they only have to cover 70% of their workers the next year).

All of this is lawlessness of course. The statute clearly says that the mandate is supposed to kick in this year. So why is President Obama taking the extra-constitutional step of letting employers temporarily off the hook?

The reason is not hard to understand. Millions of workers are in danger of losing their jobs or their other fringe benefits (such as matches to a retirement savings plan) or being forced to work part-time. Many of them are employees of hotels, restaurants and large retail stores. And these workers just might take out their anger on Democratic candidates in next fall's election.

Take a low-wage worker earning, say, $10 an hour and working 30 hours a week. This worker's annual income is a little more than $15,000 a year. But the average cost of employer-provided coverage in the United States is more than that.

That's right. Health insurance for a family costs more than this worker's entire annual income!

Here is what the new health reform law does.

First, it requires the employer to provide a rich package of benefits or pay a hefty fine. Employers must pay $2,000 per employee per year to Uncle Sam if they fail to offer affordable insurance to their full-time employees. The fine climbs to $3,000 if the employer offers the wrong kind of insurance and the employee seeks subsidized insurance in a health insurance exchange.

Second, the law requires employers to offer the same kind of insurance on the same terms to low-wage employees as it offers to high-wage employees — although this provision has also been temporarily delayed. Employers don't have to pay any of the premiums for the employees' dependents. But if the employer is paying most of the premium for the dependents of highly compensated employees the company must do the same for low-wage employees.

Third, the law provides no financial help to the typical business to make the mandates affordable. Say a low-wage employee is not offered health insurance by his employers. Then he can get almost fully subsidized insurance in a health insurance exchange. But there is no new subsidy for those forced to get insurance at work.

Economics teaches that fringe benefits (like health insurance) are not gifts from employers. They are substitutes for money wages. And the sum total of a worker's compensation tends to equal the value of what the worker produces. Employees don't suddenly become more productive just because government mandates a benefit that doubles the worker's compensation. Something has to give. For millions of employees, what may give is their job. At least a full-time job.

For the moment, many employers of low-wage workers are providing "mini-med" insurance. These plans typically provide $1,000 or $2,000 worth of coverage and in some cases as much as $25,000 — but nowhere near the full coverage with no annual or lifetime limits required under Obamacare. Here is the interesting twist, however: the mini-med plans many of these workers have may be more attractive to them than Obamacare insurance.

The reason is that the mini-med plans pay upfront medical costs, with little more than a token co-payment from the patient. Obamacare, by contrast, allows thousands of dollars in deductibles and co-payments. As I wrote at my blog:

Health insurance is a way of protecting one's financial resources against the expense of a catastrophic illness.

But if you don't own a house, you have no need for homeowners insurance. If you don't own a car, you have no need for auto casualty insurance. Similarly, if you have no assets at all (other than your human capital) why would you want health insurance?

For low and moderate income households, the reason why mini med plans are attractive seems to be this: People living paycheck to paycheck have trouble maintaining a reserve for unexpected medical expenses. So as an alternative to personal savings and higher wages, they appear to be willing to take less in take home pay in return for a modest amount of health insurance.

All that is rational. What is irrational is to use almost all of your paycheck to buy a health insurance plan with an unlimited benefit ? one that, say, is able to pay a $1 million medical bill. Why would you buy a million dollars' worth of coverage if you don't have a million dollars of assets to protect?

As I have written previously, there are things employers can do to minimize the burdens of Obamacare. But minimizing burdens is not the same thing as making them go away.

So the White House is understandably worried. One wonders why it took them so long.

[Fzob]

i don’t believe this is panic by the WH. I also don’t beleive that Valarie thought it would be this complicated. But at the end of the day this is a controlled death spiral to usher is single payer.

[txrefugee]

Immediately after the 2014 elections, all these mandates will kick in, so voters would be stupid to vote for Democrats...but then, stupid voters are their biggest voting bloc.

[bigbob]

They know no one will confront the lawlessness so why not do whatever they want?

[bert]

The recent delay was proof of the President going on defense. He has no ability to attack on the Obamacare front. He is under attack from all sides and can not respond. The problem is more complex than his ability to personally understand.

His recourse is to pretend to act. He signed a pretty much meaningless government contract minimum wage order. He had to go all the way to Iowa to find a laundry worker already making more than the minimum wage to make his pitiful point.

Then he flew off to California to flog a drought in process for several years. The farm lands including huge acreages of mature orchards were dead because the irrigation was cut off.

Again he lies.

He must dig out all the tired old leftist wacko tricks to appear to be relevant. He is already beyond lame duck.

One can only wonder when his stupid media propagandists will understand their cause is lost and their personal survival depends on the Presidents destruction.

[hoosierham]

My employer’s plan of the past dozen years was a so-called mini-med with $25,000 annual benefits cap ,and perfectly satisfactory for 98% of the employees.

Obamacare made that illegal,and raised the cost of restoring comparable benefits by $200 a month.

Down with Democrats!!!!

[Fzob]

One can only wonder when his stupid media propagandists will understand their cause is lost and their personal survival depends on the Presidents destruction

Don't hold your breath waiting for them to own up to whoring for Zero. They will never start treating him like they would a Republican that failed so badly. They will simply allow Zero to slick off into the sunset to protect their own egos.

[EQAndyBuzz]

The White Hut isn’t worried. They have a plan. I could only surmise that they will lie, cheat and kill to retain the senate and win the house. Once they have don that they will blame Republicans for ruining health care in the US and single payor is the answer.

Since Roberts has already been bought and paid for, they will replace Ginsburg with Holder so they have the long term presence on SCOTUS, then go far single payor.

Having the majority in all three branches, a media with 3 inches of dirt on their knee pads and the largest group of low information voters since the French Revolution, it will be an easy transition.

Venezuela here we come.

[albionin]

What an unmitigated disaster. The whole administration has been one as well but this is the fancy hood ornament of failures. I am not able to bring myself to believe that they didn’t see this coming so it has got to be intentional. He should be impeached.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

Why would the whitehouse panic? They own the Congress, the Courts, the military, the federal secret police, most of the swat teams, and the press, so why would they panic.

[PGalt]

Totalitarians panicking over TOTALITARIANCARE? Didn’t you get the memo?

“That’s the good thing as a President, I can do whatever I want”

“Yes, we can.”

You would use the law to oppose socialism? But it is upon the law that socialism itself relies. Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder. Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it may call upon them for help. - The Law, Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850

United $ocialists of America (U.S.A.) do not panic. They plunder.

[Yorlik803]

I agree. The Hut knew all along this plan was crap. Its just another way for single payer.
Obama and his minions may act stupid, but they are as cunning as con men who swindle old people out of their pensions. People who think Obama and his type are stupid under estimate them and that’s dangerous.
And the GOP who don’t fight them are willing co criminals.

[xzins]

One way to deal with this is simple automation. If you can have a machine make a candy with a liquer interior surrounding a piece of fruit, pack it in little slots in trays, and have 2 or 3 trays per box, then you can make a machine that does anything.

Do we really believe that the self-scan checkouts have anything at all to do with pleasing the customer...as much as self-pump gas stations. Self-help and automation are designed to get rid of pay, benefits, scheduling, personalities, and demands.

Can a machine flip a burger, add lettucecheesepicklespecialsauceandsesameseedbun? I’ve no doubt it can. And a fleet of 30 workers at 300 a week counting benefits is half a million dollars a year. And your only headache is maintenance of machines.

Imagine going to the grocery store and having no cart. You just push buttons next to products. Your order is scanned, tallied, bagged, and carted and waiting for you at the entryway.

Or...online and delivered.

which jobs can’t be automated?

[Liz]

Nice deconstruction.

I offer no brief for Republicans----but we have to realize that calculating Dems are lying-in-wait waiting to pounce. Dems every action is "the baiting game"....baiting Republicans into overreaching.

We should not dismiss evil, conniving Democrats. Look at 'em....Dems are salivating---relishing the idea of Repubs impeaching Obama---b/c the connivers can turn im/p/ment into "victimhood"....always a sure vote-getter.

How do we know this?

BACKSTORY Back when Clinton was getting lewinskied in the Oval Office, Reps howled in disgust and went for impeachment......

Hillary took refuge on broadcast TV, doing her "Virgin Mary" act (decked out w/ ropes of virginal pearls) telling Matt Lauer that a "vast-right wing conspiracy" was vilifying her husband.

Voters responded----they saw Republican actions as "overreaching." The Clintons looked like "victims" and Republicans lost seats at midterms.

Lesson learned.

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DEMS STOOP TO CONQUEUR--- Vulnerable Dems want IRS to step up
by Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 2/13/14

Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the IRS to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races. In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly.

Dems are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they’re concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations lawmakers collect, which must be reported publicly.

One of the most powerful groups is Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. It has already spent close to $30 million on ads attacking Democrats this election cycle.

“If they’re claiming the tax relief, the tax benefit to be a nonprofit for social relief or social justice, then that’s what they should be doing,” said Sen. Mark Begich (D), who faces a competitive race in Alaska. “If it’s to give them cover so they can do political activity, that’s abusing the tax code. And either side."

Asked if the IRS should play a more active role policing political advocacy by groups that claim to be focused on social welfare, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) responded, “Absolutely. Both on the left and the right,” she said. “As taxpayers, we should not be providing a write-off to groups to do political activity, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

She called the glut of political spending by self-described social welfare groups that qualify under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code “outrageous.” Shaheen is in a good position now but could find herself embroiled in a tight campaign if former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass) challenges her. Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent, said the IRS has jurisdiction over 501(c)(4) groups, as well as charities, which fall under section 5/01(c)(3) of the tax code and sometimes engage in quasi-political activity.

“That whole 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) [issue], those are IRS numbers. It is inherently an internal revenue matter,” he said. “There are two things you don’t want in political money, in the fundraising world and expenditure world. You don’t want secret money, and you don’t want unlimited money, and that’s what we have now.” --SNIP--

[RipSawyer]

“...but then, stupid voters are their biggest voting bloc.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

And the rest are those who vote to loot the public treasury with total disregard for anything other than their own interests.

[Liz]

MEMO TO VOTERS Democrats by an historic straight party-line vote enacted into law: (1) throwing you off your health plans into an abyss of confusion, (2) voted for nationalizing 1/16 of the US economy,(3) voted for IPAB's, and, (4) for decimating intergenerational transfers of wealth (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you). Read on.

Ominous cogs in the Obamacare meat grinder----the inexorable forcing of Grandma/pa onto Medicaid--(like cattle herded single-file onto the narrow ramp---knowing the bolt is coming---but not able to do a thing about it).

Medicaid conveniently groups together the sick and elderly---as Obama's IPAB board of radical Boobamba worshippers sit in judgment. Boobamba's Orwellian-speak---the progressive way of saying "Obamacare keeps costs down."

The infamous "Death Panels---are alive and well----but they're not called death panels......for obvious reasons. The treacherous Obama euphemistically calls his death panel "I-PAB----Individual Payment Advisory Board." I-PAB decides what to pay and who to pay---thus rationing medical care to sick oldsters. Obamacare "allows" states to expand their Medicaid recipients pool. Under Obamacare, Washington now covers about 1/2 the cost of Medicaid enrollees.

==================================================

What is I-PAB?

When you find out about IPAB, you will not believe it - but it’s r-e-a-l.... a new type of government agency. IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) is the first agency of the “fifth branch” of govt.

1) It will make all important health care decisions by authorizing payment or not.
2) It is not funded by Congress and cannot have its budget reviewed or changed.
3) Its membership cannot be changed by future Presidents,
4) It cannot be repealed by Congress, except for a six month window in 2017.
5) Its decisions are not subject to judicial review.
6) It is not authorized by the Constitution, and is therefore immune to Constitutional processes.

==================================================

Why is Obamacre herding seniors WITH ASSETS onto Medicaid---a program structured for the poor? Can you say redistribution of wealth? Herding the elderly with assets into Medicaid has ominous consequences that are intriguing to the left. B/c assets, perhaps a home owned free and clear, securities, annuities, investment property, can be seized to pay for govt treatment.

Thus intergenerational transfers of wealth (a longtime progressive bugaboo)----are decimated (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you).

REMINDER: Lock-stepping Democrats voted for all of this.

[Liz]

SIGNING "THE BIG EFFIN' DEAL" (now known as "The Big Effin' Debacle")

"Those Democrats leering over my shoulder owe me bigtime.
The healthcare bill insures we get a permanent Democratic majority."

" All except those Tea Party types, swallowed hook, line and sinker my promises that they could:

(1) keep their existing health plans,
(2) keep their own doctors that they like,
(3) keep their 25-year-olds on the family health plan,
(4) never be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition,
(5) sign up instantly on my tech-savvy government Web site,
(6) buy insurance only after becoming seriously ill."
(7) save $2,500 in annual premiums in the bargain....
(8) All without any new taxes."

"Them sonovagun Tea Partiers will rue the day they criticized my wonderful bill."

======================================================

The Republican-controlled house has passed over 30 different bills amending or replacing O/Care. Democratic Sen Harry Reid is the roadblock.

[luvbach1]

...stupid voters are their biggest voting bloc.

This immovable core of ignoramuses is not even vaguely aware of the Bamster's evil machinations.

[Cheerio]

So why is President Obama taking the extra-constitutional step of letting employers temporarily off the hook?

So why are no employers suing the Clown over unconstitutionally rewriting the law? I suppose they cannot prove "HARM" but surely they must have standing.

[Sirius Lee]

Why would the whitehouse panic? They own the Congress, the Courts, the military, the federal secret police, most of the swat teams, and the press, so why would they panic.

Because they are quickly running out of other people's money.