The ObamaCare Writedowns

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 03-27-10 | The Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff

[GOP_Lady]

The corporate damage rolls in, and Democrats are shocked!

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."

[GOP_Lady]

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[okokie]

Isn’t this what the dems wanted, to destroy those mean ole businesses?

[Slyfox]

The objective of Obamacare is not to provide affordable healthcare to the masses. The Federal government can't do anything affordably.

No, Obamacare was devised precisely to control the masses, while we are all paying through the nose.

We are going to really miss our medical saving accounts.

[SierraWasp]

It continues to be about more mindless madness from the Deemonicrats!!!

[Tzimisce]

Laughs.

And laughs.

And laughs.

The people who voted Obama sure made history alright. :)

[freekitty]

I wouldn’t be surprised if AT&T is lying. They have been with the left for quite a while. How do we really know what Obama and these corporations are cooking up. We don’t know.

AT&T literally stole close to $400.00 from a friend of mine and it went almost to the top involving I believe the secretary or close to her the Chairman of the Board. My friend has no money to defend themselves so it was a slam dunk for AT&T. I will never believe what they have to say.

[soycd]

Yes, but America put a person of color in the white House. SO what if he is a socialist, racist
scumbag without so much as a clue how America works.

FUBO and your allah ackbar (urine be upon him) terrorist mindset.

[Intolerant in NJ]

This wholesale destruction of wealth and capital came with more than ample warning...anybody who hasn't figured out by now that this "reform" like the rest of Obama's agenda is all about bringing the country down is probably too dense to heed any warning. And the more you look, the more diabolical it becomes. Who actually believes that a $95 fine is going to scare anyone into signing up for medical insurance. Unless the idea isn't to get people to sign up, but rather to lull them into feeling secure without insurance - until they get sick, at which point they can always get insurance regardless of any pre-existing condition. Which of course is going to cost the insurance companies lots of money and raise their rates, to the point that they'll either stop attracting customers or go bankrupt - presto, another private sector wiped out, leaving the government to pick up the pieces - diabolical I say.....

[Secret Agent Man]

And of course the dems will just blame evil companies for doing so, to be spiteful or mean to their employees, to get back at Obama and the democrats groundbreaking efforts, yada yada yada...

Nobody’s buying it. Except the sock puppet press.

[Oceander]

The reaction of those democrats is the heighth of bad-faith, hypocrisy, and disingenuousness. They were told, over and over and over and over and ... ad infinitum, that Obamacare would destroy the economy, and they willfully, intentionally, and in bad faith chose to ignore those warnings - chose to be willfully blind to reality - and now they want us to commiserate with them because they're "shocked" at what these companies are doing? If you're really that shocked, folks, then there is only one honorable thing left for you to do: start telling the truth about Obamacare, and resign so that a Republican (or any non-democrat) can be given your seat by your constituents in order to help the other republicans and conservatives in Congress to start cleaning up the epic mess you made. Otherwise, shut the eff up; you can whinge about it in private after your political career has been lopped off at the knees this Fall.

[GlockThe Vote]

I wish these companies could fire all the maobama voters and tell them “here is your change” moron.

[indianrightwinger]

I am crying in laughing....this country is on a destructive path. I will vote conservative, I will contribute big to conservatives....but, still the weight is too big to lift.

I know Europe well and I never thought I would see a day US turns into Europe.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

I wouldn’t be surprised if AT&T is lying. They have been with the left for quite a while. How do we really know what Obama and these corporations are cooking up. We don’t know.

AT&T tends to give more to the GOP, about a 55/44 ratio of GOP to Dem donations. I don't know if I'd say they're with the left, as much as trying to figure out how to maintain a business when the left is in control...

[Smokeyblue]

From the article:

“Meanwhile, 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.”

---

Now they are going to grill and harass these companies for telling the truth. Dictator Obeyme Hussein doesn’t like dissent.

[caseinpoint]

I have never really understood how a liberal who absolutely believes that a gas-powered lawn mower in Idaho will kill off an endangered species in Brazil while, at the same time, believing that major tinkering with the economy will affect nothing else besides what is tinkered with. They believe in an ecological stream of consequences but not an economic one. (Of course, the ultimate irony is that their beloved environmentalism is actually a luxury of a cranking economy.)

[thecabal]

Meanwhile, 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."

To put this in a Bidenesque way: unf***ing believable!

Because they have the audacity to do right by the shareholders by properly accounting for their losses, they now have to answer their masters in Congress? How dare your reality trump our political lies!

[tommyjm]

We have to destroy the economy in order to save it.

[SUSSA]

Companies like John Deer and Caterpillar should tell the national socialists they are closing all U.S. operations on May 1. They should cancel all purchases, refuse all shipments of parts, etc., and tell their employees they hate to leave them stuck here but the national socialists have made it impossible to stay.

See how the national socialists like having a few million more Americans out of work and all those corporate taxes gone.

[tcrlaf]

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