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The Wall Street Journal
The corporate damage rolls in, and Democrats are shocked!
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.
Perhaps that explains why the Administration is now so touchy. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, “In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them.” In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said “for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible.”
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. 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.
As Joe Biden might put it, this is a big, er, deal for shareholders and the economy. The consulting firm Towers Watson estimates that the total hit this year will reach nearly $14 billion, unless corporations cut retiree drug benefits when their labor contracts let them.
Meanwhile, John DiStaso of the New Hampshire Union Leader reported this week that ObamaCare could cost the Granite State’s major ski resorts as much as $1 million in fines, because they hire large numbers of seasonal workers without offering health benefits. “The choices are pretty clear, either increase prices or cut costs, which could mean hiring fewer workers next winter,” he wrote.
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.
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Americans horrified by the new health care laws are all asking the same question: what do we do now? On one level, the answer is obvious: we need to elect people committed to repealing the health care bill, and then embracing an entirely different approach to improving our health care system by returning power to the people. That election process really does begin today, culminating in November, and then again in November 2012 when the stakes go even higher for the Presidential election.
Yet Thomas Miller of AEI has a few additional ideas of what can be done even before the November elections:
(1) Stop the reconciliation bill coming up in the Senate this week. Several successful “Byrd rule” procedural challenges could strip key provisions out of the bill—although an initial ruling by the Senate parliamentarian late Monday night on the deal to delay the effects of a “Cadillac” tax on very high-cost insurance plans suggests the process remains wired for the majority. The Senate Republicans still hope to sink the rest of the bill by removing portions of its net budget savings and other House-favored changes. A host of Republican amendments also could stretch out this latest war of attrition and (if we want to be optimistic) result later in a House-Senate stalemate in a conference committee before the promise of a quick fix is abandoned.
(2) Challenge and slow down early stages of the final law’s implementation at various chokepoints. The health legislation remains fundamentally unworkable. Forcing it to run a multi-year gauntlet of critical comments and questions in the rulemaking process, rigorous administrative procedure requirements, and a tsunami of legal challenges to its statutory provisions should start the hemorrhaging.
The legal aspects of this will be particularly interesting. While it will be an uphill battle, as Nicole Kurowara writes on IWF’s blog, there is hope that the judiciary will reclaim its proper role as the true defender of individual liberty and enforcer of the concept of limited government.
Perhaps the most important thing that anyone can do is to remain engaged. One big battle was lost, but the war over health care is far from over.
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IWV’s Sabrina Schaeffer joins The Steve Largent Show to discuss health care issues after the passage of the bill.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Christina Jamison
March 24, 2010 (202) 631-1158
Email: Christina.Jamison@iwvoices.org
SomeAreMoreEqual.com Goes Live!
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Independent Women’s Voice CEO Heather Higgins today announced the launch of SomeAreMoreEqual.com, a web site designed to draw attention to the so-called “Leadership and Committee Staff Carve-Out” provision exempting key congressional staffers from some of the requirements of the health spending bill signed into law just yesterday.
“In our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘All men are created equal,’” said Higgins. “What he meant by that was that all men and women are to be treated equally under the law. That’s a lesson certain congressional staffers – to wit, the Leadership and Committee staffers who wrote the health spending bill signed into law yesterday – would do well to remember. Apparently, they must have forgotten Jefferson’s axiom – they wrote the bill in such a way as to exempt themselves from some of the requirements imposed upon other congressional staffers, and, in fact, Members of Congress.
“That’s unconscionable. The Leadership and Committee staff members who wrote this exemption into the legislation are acting like the pigs in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ where the motto was ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.’
“Later today, Sen. Grassley will offer an amendment to remove this particularly odious provision. Independent Women’s Voice strongly supports Sen. Grassley’s effort to remove this offensive carve-out, and, to that end, we have created a new web site – http://SomeAreMoreEqual.com — to draw attention to this special exemption.
“We have no doubt that as the daysand weeks continue, we will continue to learn, in Speaker Pelosi’s memorable phrase, ‘just what’s in the bill.’”
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Kellyanne Conway joins The Martha Zoller Show to discuss health care poll results.
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Carrie Lukas joins The Rick Roberts Show to discuss reactions to the health care bill vote.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christina Jamison
March 20, 2010 (202) 631-1158 Christina.Jamison@iwvoices.org
“Liberal” Blog Ad Network Refuses To Advertise
SpeakerPelosiHatesThis.com
(WASHINGTON, March 20) –The Liberal Blog Advertising Network http://web.blogads.com/advertise/liberal_blog_advertising_network refused today to sell online banner ad space intended to drive traffic to http://SpeakerPelosiHatesThis.com, a lighthearted, inoffensive, helpful reminder to the staffs of Members whose vote will likely cost them their jobs this fall.
“Not for a long time have I made the mistake of thinking that ‘liberal’ necessarily translates as ‘open-minded,’ said Heather Higgins, President and CEO of Independent Women’s Voice. “Nor that it guaranteed having a sense of humor. Nevertheless, the decision by the Liberal Blog Advertising Network to refuse to sell online ad space to Independent Women’s Voice simply because they apparently do not like the content of our advertising is, in a word, disappointing. I wanted very much for our ads ‘to reach the influential people who forge the national progressive zeitgeist,’ and I was assured by their web page that this was the way to reach these ‘online hyper-influentials.’
“It’s disappointing that the Liberal Blog Advertising Network has chosen to censor our advertising so as not to upset their apparently hyper-delicate sensibilities. We trust more unbiased outlets, which appreciate free speech and can distinguish between an alternate point of view and an offensive one, will not be so threatened.”
“If they’d like to see what the fuss is about, all they have to do is type http://SpeakerPelosiHatesThis.com into their browser and they’ll see what kind of help we are trying to offer staffers of House Democrats who make the mistake of voting YES on the health care bill currently before the Congress.”
Independent Women’s Voice, a 501(c) (4) non-partisan charitable organization, recently surveyed 35 targeted House districts. Results of the survey can be found online here: http://iwvoice.org/iwv-poll-of-35-key-swing-districts/
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The Weekly Standard
By: William Kristol
Thank you, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter.Nancy Pelosi and Louise Slaughter have come up with a parliamentary maneuver — “deem and pass” — reeking of evasiveness and trickery that Democratic members are going to have to embrace. But it gets better! The point of “deem and pass” is to allow representatives to vote directly only on the reconciliation “fixes” rather than on the Senate health care bill bill (which will be deemed to be passed if reconciliation passes). But the reconciliation “fixes” make the Senate bill even more politically unattractive.
Here’s what Democrats will be asked to vote for Sunday (thanks to Keith Hennessey for his useful list):
* Additional tax increases, on top of the ones in the Senate bill. The reconciliation bill raises the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9% to a combined employer-employee 3.8% for individuals with income over $200K and couples over $250K, and, beginning in 2013, creates a new 3.8% tax on some capital income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, and rents for those individuals and families.
* Even deeper cuts to Medicare Advantage, which will mean fewer and less attractive Medicare Advantage plans available to seniors.
* Increases in the employer penalties for not complying with the mandates, which will hit all businesses with more than 50 employees.
Now, Democratic leaders will tell members that there are some popular things in the new package — for example, the one-time $250 “rebate” in 2010 for seniors who reach the Medicare drug benefit coverage gap. But they’re likely wrong that even this will be popular. In an era of concern about the deficit, the giveaway will be ridiculed as an attempt at pure election-year vote-buying, and will backfire.
What’s more, the reconciliation bill the House will be voting on has several clear Byrd rule violations. Senate Republicans will be able to use the Byrd rule to strike these provisions from the bill. So if the Senate then passes a modified reconciliation bill, it will return it to the House, which will have to vote on a version of this bill AGAIN.
The Democrats would actually be better off — well, less worse off — simply voting to pass the Senate bill. But by embracing the Slaughter Rule and this package of reconciliation fixes, they’ve managed to make a bad political situation for themselves worse. Congratulations!
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Visit www.BarackHatesThis.com for a target list of Congressmen and Congresswomenyou can call to make your voice heard. Call their district offices first, then call their Capitol Hill offices. Ask them to please vote to kill the bill.
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IWV’s Carrie Lukas joins The Steve Largent Show to discuss a recent poll on health care.
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