Obamacare: Obama won so I fired 22 employees

[_bcspace]

In June, a diffident and self-deluded President Obama claimed that "the private sector is doing fine." Last week, the private sector responded: Speak for yourself, buster. Who needs an "October Surprise" when the business headlines are broadcasting the imminent layoff bomb in neon lights?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Tuesday that employers issued 1,316 "mass layoff actions" (affecting 50 workers or more) in September; more than 122,000 workers were affected overall. USA Today financial reporter Matt Krantz wrote that "(m)uch of the recent layoff activity is connected to what's been the slowest period of earnings growth since the third quarter of 2009." Some necessary restructuring is underway in response to the stagnant European economy. But more and more U.S. businesses are putting the blame -- bravely and squarely -- right where it belongs: on the obstructionist policies and regulatory schemes of the blame-shifter-in-chief.

Last week, Ohio-based auto parts manufacturer Dana Holding Corp. warned employees of potential layoffs amid "looming concern" about the economy. President and CEO Roger Wood specifically mentioned the walloping burden of "increasing taxes on small businesses" and the need to "offset increased costs that are placed on us through new laws and regulations."

Case in point: Obamacare. The mandate will cost Dana Holding Corp., which employs some 24,500 workers, "approximately $24 million over the next six years in additional U.S. health care expenses." As Ohio Watchdog blogger Maggie Thurber reported, the firm's Toledo area corporate offices laid off seven white-collar employees last Friday; company insiders told her more were on the way. They are not alone.

On Tuesday, Consol Energy issued a federally mandated layoff disclosure announcing its "intent to idle its Miller Creek surface operations near Naugatuck, W.Va." The move will affect the company's Wiley Surface Mine, Wiley Creek Surface Mine, Minway Surface Mine, Minway Preparation Plant and Miller Creek Administration Group, all in Mingo County, W.Va. Despite state approval, cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and myriad other agencies, and a stellar safety record, Obama's EPA dragged its feet on the permit approval process. The impasse has forced layoffs of 145 Consol Energy employees that will hit at the end of the year. They are not alone.

In August, Robert E. Murray, founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation in Ohio, blasted the White House anti-coal agenda for the layoffs and closure of his company's mine. He told Obama water-carrying CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that "the many regulations that (Obama) and his radical appointees and the U.S. EPA have put on the use of coal, there are dozens of them and collectively by his own energy administration, have closed 175 power plants." As O'Brien barked at her guest about purported environmental objections, Murray explained that "we cannot get permits for these mines. They are delaying the issuance of permits. If you can't get the permit, you can't have the mine. ... I created those jobs, and I put the investment in that mine. And when it came time to lay the people off, I went up personally and talked to every one of them myself to lay them off. It's a human issue."

And it's an innovation issue, too. As I reported in February, Obamacare's impending 2.3 percent medical device excise tax has already wrought havoc on the industry:

Stryker, a maker of artificial hips and knees based in Kalamazoo, Mich., is slashing 5 percent of its global workforce (an estimated 1,000 workers) this coming year to reduce costs related to Obamacare's taxes and mandates.

Covidien, a N.Y.-based surgical supplies manufacturer, recently announced layoffs of 200 American workers and plans to move some of its plant work to Mexico and Costa Rica, in part because of the coming tax hit.

Mass.-based Zoll Medical Corp., which makes defibrillators and employs some 1,800 workers in the U.S. and around the world, says the medical device tax will cost the company between $5 million and $10 million a year.

This July, Indiana's Cook Medical Inc. shelved plans to open five new plants because of the imminent medical device tax hit. They are not alone.

The heads of Koch Industries, Westgate Resorts and ASG Software Solutions have all separately informed their employees of prosperity-undermining Obama economic politics. Left-wing groups have lambasted the executives for exercising their political free speech.

But they have remained silent while the White House corruptocrats bribed federal defense contractors into delaying federally mandated layoff disclosures before the election. In a memo now being investigated on Capitol Hill, Obama promised to cover the legal fees of Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors if they ignored legal requirements to inform workers in advance about so-called sequestration cuts to the military's budget scheduled to kick in next year.

Truth suppression is a time-honored Obama tactic, of course. Remember: The administration and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill attempted to punish Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and ATT in 2010 for disclosing how the costs of Obamacare taxes were hitting their bottom lines -- even though they were simply following SEC disclosure requirements. The White House also tried to silence insurers who dared to inform their customers about how Obamacare was driving up premiums. Not this time.

The administration's bully boys don't have enough whitewash and duct tape to cover up the past, present and future devastation of the president and his economic demolition team.

Obama's layoff bomb

[_EAllusion]

Nope. Political parties aren't a protected class.

Turns out this varies by local law and job sector. If this doesn't apply in your case, lucky you (if you plan on discriminating based on political affiliation anyway.)

[_cinepro]

Nope. Political parties aren't a protected class.

Turns out this varies by local law and job sector. If this doesn't apply in your case, lucky you (if you plan on discriminating based on political affiliation anyway.)

Looks like it's not the first time it's been discussed, and there is good information here:

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/law-leg ... 14-9356514


It looks like it's okay with Nevada state law, so this guy should be okay:

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-613.html

NRS 613.330 Unlawful employment practices: Discrimination on basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability or national origin; interference with aid or appliance for disability; refusal to permit service animal at place of employment.

[_Kevin Graham]

I'm confident this is a bunch of malarky, but we should find out soon enough when the next jobs report is released. If even half of the Right Wing hysteria is justified, then we should see a dramatic drop in private sector jobs, should we not?

[_madeleine]

LAS VEGAS (CBS Las Vegas) — A Las Vegas business owner with 114 employees fired 22 workers today, apparently as a direct result of President Obama’s re-election.

“David” (he asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) told Host Kevin Wall on 100.5 KXNT that “elections have consequences” and that “at the end of the day, I need to survive.”

Here’s an excerpt from the interview. Click the audio tab below to hear even more from this compelling conversation:

“I’ve done my share of educating my employees. I never tell them which way to vote. I believe in the free system we have, I believe in the right to choose who they want to be president, but I did explain as a business owner that I have always put my employees first. I always made sure that when I went without a paycheck that [I] made sure they were paid. And I explained that I always put them first and unfortunately I’m at a point where I’m being forced to have to worry about me and my family now and a business that I built from just me to 114 employees.

“I explained to them a month ago that if Obama gets in office that the regulations for Obamacare are gonna hurt our business, and I’m gonna have to make provisions to make sure I have enough money to cover the payroll taxes, the additional health care I’m gonna have to do, and I explained that to them and I said you do what you feel like in your heart you need to do, but I’m just letting you know as a warning this is things I have to think of as a business owner.

“Well unfortunately, and most of my employees are Hispanic — I’m not gonna go into what kind of company I have, but I have mostly Hispanic employees — well unfortunately we know what happened and I can’t wait around anymore, I have to be proactive. I had to lay off 22 people today to make sure that my business is gonna thrive and I’m gonna be around for years to come. I have to build up that nest egg now for the taxes and regulations that are coming my way. Elections do have consequences, but so do choices. A choice you make every day has consequences and you know what, I’ve always put my employees first, but unfortunately today I have to put me and my family first, and you watch what’s gonna happen. I’m just one guy with 114 employees — well was 114 employees — watch what happens in the next six months. The Dow alone lost 314 points today. There’s a tsunami coming and if you didn’t think this election had consequences, just wait.”

Hear the rest of David’s call by clicking here:

Vegas Employer: Obama Won, So I Fired 22 Employees

This is what's happening with my clientele. Many waited as long as they could, hoping there was a chance Obamacare could be changed or repealed. Obama's Christmas gift to small business and the middle and lower classes? Mass layoffs and hiring freezes.

Here's what I think about people like this. They want to run a business and skimp by not providing benefits to employees. The Walmart model.

Even my own parents, who are very conservative, very active TBMs, and successful hardworking entrepreneurs, won't shop at Walmart.

I have no sympathy for someone who can't run their business, and when it is failing, blames something that hasn't even happened yet. The ACC provides support to small businesses, so that they can provide health coverage for their employees.

So until and unless this whiner can put up some numbers, I'd say he's covering his failure by blaming someone else.

But hey, this is America, the market will dictate. Where this guy fails, someone else will not. Whining about being legislated into acting like a descent human being doesn't bring any sympathy to me.

[_moksha]

My guess is that truly astute businessmen like Mitt Romney have been shipping jobs overseas for the last ten years, in anticipation of Obamacare.

They need to go to some third world countries which are still without a health care system, a work week limited to 40 hours, a prohibition against child labor and last but not least, required safety inspections. All these items interfere with maximal profit. All the industrial countries in the world have a national health care system.

[_cinepro]

Here's what I think about people like this. They want to run a business and skimp by not providing benefits to employees. The Walmart model.

I reject the idea health insurance is something that should be inherently provided by employers. I'm not asked to provide car insurance, fire insurance, flood insurance, life insurance or earthquake insurance for my employees, so I don't think I should be buying them health insurance. Doing so introduces a huge distortion into the market that only makes things worse.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =114045132

If employers want to provide health insurance as a voluntary benefit, I think that's great (and it should be taxed as such). But to make it an outright expectation (or "right") is just too much.

[_ajax18]

It's pretty clear Obamacare will become the law of the land. What remains to be seen is how it will be enforced. It might just force a lot of businesses underground and off the grid.

[_Gadianton]

There is now a majority of Americans who have simply abandoned the principles of the Founding (and the gospel, broadly speaking) or, given the state of K-12 over the last several decades, never remotely understood those principles.

You mean, like detaining Korihor, letting him die in the street, and then smiling as his dead body is trampled, just because he publically questioned creationism?

[_Gadianton]

After a previous century of violent revolution, the Socialists have learned to raise the temperature slowly so not enough people will notice in time.

you're getting a lot out of mileage out of that frog analogy you learned in primary.