The New Normal Is The Old Crazy: Obamacare's Latest Imposition On Businesses
The Treasury department uses the penalty of perjury as a big stick to push businesses around -- to keep employing employees they can no longer afford under Obamacare.
An IBD editorial:
Overreach: In what may be considered an ObamaCare loyalty oath, the Treasury Department orders employers to attest that any employee layoffs are not due to its imposed costs under penalty of perjury.The first rule of business is to stay in business, something which is accomplished by doing what government is incapable of doing -- controlling costs and making a profit by giving customers a product or service they need or want.
ObamaCare is obviously a product neither business nor the individual wants, so coercion is necessary under penalty of law.
Enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, individuals must enroll in government-approved plans or be fined.
Individuals are not allowed, despite presidential promises, to keep the plans and doctors they like and can afford.
Instead, they must accept plans they don't like and can't afford, some getting subsidies extracted from other taxpayers or China. They must grin and bear their reduced health care choices and higher costs.
Even though ObamaCare's employer mandate has once again been illegally and unconstitutionally extended by the president who would be king, business still faces ObamaCare's punitive cost increases down the road and its own form of government coercion.
Layoffs are an unfortunate but sometimes necessary means for a business to control costs and stay in business.
On Monday, a Treasury Department unconcerned with the necessities of the free market said that businesses will need to "certify" that they are not shedding full-time workers simply to avoid the mandate and its costs.
No, your business is no longer your own, and neither are your hiring, layoff, and firing decisions.
My question: Where is the media ? Where is the old style, Watergate era, investigative journalism ? If a Republican president had done all the known scandals, the media would be all over the story like a terrier dog. But Bengazi, IRS, NSA, Obamacare, and now this...the media yawns. Nothing to see here folks.
This has been the longest wet kiss between a president and the media I have ever witnessed.
Nick at February 13, 2014 6:55 AM
Yeah, a Republican who had done half the shit Obama has pulled would be hounded out of office by now (and rightly so).
"On Monday, a Treasury Department unconcerned with the necessities of the free market said that businesses will need to "certify" that they are not shedding full-time workers simply to avoid the mandate and its costs."
And what if they don't? I'm curious to find out what part of the Constitution grants the Treasury Department unlimited authority over private businesses (especially outside of the banking sector). Must be that "good welfare clause".
Cousin Dave at February 13, 2014 8:36 AM
This is just CYA to provide cover when the job losses the CBO predicts, actually happen. See, the businesses will be forced to say, "We're not laying off 100 people due to Obamacare, this is just a workforce adjustment..."
and then the administration can say: "see, this ain't gott nuttin to do with Obamacare, they attested to that."
QED.
SwissArmyD at February 13, 2014 9:18 AM
And, as Cousin Dave asked, what if they don't attest to that? Can the IRS then impose penalties or take punitive action against a business owner who flat out states he is shedding jobs due to Obamacare costs?
According to the editorial, "Officials said employers will be told to sign a 'self-attestation' on their tax forms affirming this, under penalty of perjury."
They will be told to sign. What's next, a loyalty oath?
The Treasury Department is telling employers they cannot slim down to fewer than 50 employees in order to avoid Obamacare's increased labor costs. Layoffs generally are to avoid or reduce excess labor costs - usually due to a business downturn or to a merger/automation which makes those laborers redundant.
Obamacare is a cost. Providing employees with benefits before Obamacare was enacted was also a cost, but it was a cost of doing business. If you didn't offer at least some benefits, you didn't get and retain good employees. And the benefits plans offered were adjustable to the overall value to the business of the employees getting the benefits (i.e., a business hiring almost entirely unskilled labor could offer a spartan plan while one hiring high skill labor could offer broader and better benefits to compete for labor that easily find another job).
Obamacare, in mandating high levels of benefits, offers no flexibility for small employers - offer the Cadillac plan or else. And that Cadillac plan may simply cost too much relative to what the employees are worth to the business.
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Around the time the EEOC starting dropping by to measure how many women and minorities are on your payroll, those decisions stopped being yours.
Conan the Grammarian at February 13, 2014 10:11 AM
Cousin Dave: "And what if they don't? I'm curious to find out what part of the Constitution grants the Treasury Department unlimited authority over private businesses..."
Clearly the Constitution doesn't give the Treasury Department any such authority. But the threat of violence, via the police, guns, courts and jails of the government, gives the politicians and bureaucrats all the "authority" they think they need to force anyone to do whatever they want, regardless of the Constitution.
Enforcing obamacare is no more legal than robbing convenience stores. But what's anyone going to do about it, call the cops?
Ken R at February 13, 2014 11:14 AM
Conan: "Obamacare, in mandating high levels of benefits, offers no flexibility for small employers - offer the Cadillac plan or else..."
And they don't define "Cadillac plan" by the level of benefits, which are pretty poor with obamacare, but by the annual premium, which is very high compared to what similar or better coverage cost before.
Ken R at February 13, 2014 11:19 AM
Yep. As I've said before, with Obamacare, you pay for a Cadillac but you get a Daewoo.
Cousin Dave at February 14, 2014 6:53 AM
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