The glove fits

According to the Daily Caller, “Rep. Henry Waxman demanded that AT&T,
Verizon, Caterpillar, and Deere & Co. justify their claims about the ‘costs
the companies plan to book related to the new health-care law.’ ” According to Business Week, “Dallas-based AT&T said in a regulatory filing
yesterday it would record $1 billion of costs, the most of any U.S. company so
far. AT&T previously received a tax-free benefit from the government to
subsidize health-care costs for retirees. Under the new bill, AT&T will no
longer be able to deduct that subsidy.”

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee put out a couple of fun facts
about the terrible impact this legislation will have on job creation.

For example, leading corporations are already preparing for the big hit they
are going to take to their bottom line from this bill. 3M will face $90
million, ATT will face a billion, Caterpillar will face $100 billion, Medtronics
will face up to $200 million and Prudential will face $100 million. Those are
dollars that won’t go into creating jobs.

The healthcare measure will also do nothing to help small-business owners deal
with increasing healthcare costs. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) says that those costs will continue to increase. Worse, the provision
that is meant to help really small businesses deal with increased healthcare
costs with a small-business tax credit doesn’t work for firms with 25
employees. And those are the businesses that probably can afford to hire
workers.

This healthcare tax credit gives a perverse incentive to keep wages low. If the
average salary for an employee is $25,000, they qualify for the credit. But if
the average salary exceeds $50,000, they don’t. The nonpartisan CBO estimates
that 88 percent of those who work in the small-group market (insurance sold to
small businesses with 50 or fewer employees) will be employed by firms that
will not receive any tax credits under the Democrats’ legislation.


According to the National Federation of Independent Business, “The businesses
most likely to see the tax increase are those that employ between 20 to 200
workers. These businesses account for more than one-quarter of the American
workforce.”

The bill also encourages growing small businesses to hire only part-time
workers. Under the Democrats’ employer mandate, which includes new taxes based
on the number of full-time equivalent employees, only businesses with more than
50 employees are subject to the new taxes. However, part-time employees offer a
way to avoid exceeding this threshold. For example, a growing small business
could add several part-time employees, and as long their total hours do not
exceed 120 per month, these part-time employees do not count towards the 50-employee
threshold. 
 

Does this sound like a plan to kill jobs to you?

It was Johnnie Cochrane who said that if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.

But what if the glove does fit?

Visit www.thefeeherytheory.com.