Tag Archives: Employment

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Real personal income for Americans falls 3.2% during Obama’s term

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Story from the Washington Times. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Real personal income for Americans – excluding government payouts such as Social Security – has fallen by 3.2 percent since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

For comparison, real personal income during the first 15 months in office for President George W. Bush, who inherited a milder recession from his predecessor, dropped 0.4 percent. Income excluding government payouts increased 12.7 percent during Mr. Bush’s eight years in office.

“This is hardly surprising,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. “Under President Obama, only federal spending is going up; jobs, business startups, and incomes are all down. It is proof that the government can’t spend its way to prosperity.”

According to the bureau’s statistics, per capita income dropped during 2009 in 47 states, with only modest gains in the other states, West Virginia, Maine and Maryland. But most of those increases were attributed to rising income from the government, such as Medicare and unemployment benefits.

And tax hikes are right around the corner, because his massive spending requires it.

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More companies announce massive losses as a result of Obamacare

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From Associated Press. (H/T Ace of Spades via ECM)

Excerpt:

Insurer Prudential Financial Inc. said Monday that it will take a $100 million charge in the first quarter in relation to the recent health care overhaul legislation.

The life insurance and annuities provider said in a regulatory filing that it will take the charge against earnings in the first quarter.

Prudential joins a growing list of companies that have said they will take accounting charges because of the health care bills. AT&T said last week it would take a $1 billion charge in the first quarter. AK Steel Corp., 3M Co., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy have also said they would take smaller charges.

Prudential said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the health bill signed into law by President Barack Obama last week and a companion measure he is expected to sign Tuesday will reduce its tax deduction for retiree health care costs beginning in 2013.

Companies that provide prescription drug benefits for retirees have been getting subsidies covering 28 percent of eligible costs but could deduct everything they spent on the benefits — including the federal money — from their taxable income.

Normally I oppose subsidies, but this one one was keeping the elderly off the even more wasteful Medicare prescription drug plan. (I hate that plan – it was a huge mistake made by an otherwise good president). These companies are going to dump the pensioners onto Medicare and it will cost EVEN MORE to have an inefficient government run the program, with all the waste and fraud that plagues Medicare now.

Ace writes:

That subsidy was to induce companies to keep retirees on their own corporate plans rather than dump them into taxpayer-funded Medicare. Now that they’ve cut the subsidy, not only is it costing these businesses money, but many are thinking of giving up the subsidy and dumping them into government health care.

Remember, if you like your insurance, you get to keep your insurance.

And Henry Waxman is going to drag these CEOs in front of his committee, to harass and threaten them, and badger them into answering why they’re bound to accurately account for additional new tax costs.

In fact, Waxman doesn’t want an answer to that; what he wants is for companies to hide these new, embarrassing costs illegally, so that Democrats don’t have to answer questions about them. And he figures harassment and the threat of punitive legislative action should be enough to give other companies the hint.

Preemptive Strike? Rich Lowry says it’s part of the Democrats’ plan to claim that all negative consequences of this bill are due to a conspiracy between evil corporations.

Meanwhile, National Review has a related story from PRNewswire. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) today announced that as a result of certain provisions in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care program, future Medicare prescription drug subsidies received by the Company for retiree prescription drug coverage will now be taxable.  As a result, the Company expects to record a discrete tax adjustment of $22 million, or 4 cents of diluted income per share from continuing operations, in its 2010 first quarter results to reflect this change in tax treatment.  This discrete tax adjustment was not included in the Company’s March 15, 2010 revised earnings forecast.

Wow. We’re in freaking North Korea now. Next time, don’t vote for the radical socialist. Socialism makes jobs go away. This is not a surprise to anyone on the right. We know these things because we’re grown ups. We know how the world works. Happy talk doesn’t grow the economy.

Related: Other companies take massive losses after Obamacare passes.

News

Obama’s nationalization of student loans killed private sector jobs

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Marathon Pundit reports.

Excerpt:

PENNSYLVANIA: “Sallie Mae Decided Against Hiring 300 Temporary Workers At Its Loan Servicing Center After The Passage Of Student Lending Reform. Still to be determined are the long-term effects on the nearly 1,000 workers at the company’s facility in the Hanover Industrial Estates. “The temporary jobs that were posted in preparation for this year’s peak loan processing season have been eliminated,” Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, said in an e-mail Friday. The move was in reaction to the passage Thursday of The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that was included in the health care reform bill.” (“Sallie Mae plan for 300 temps halted,” The Times Leader, 3/27/10)

NEBRASKA: “Congressional Votes On Thursday To End Federally Subsidized Student Lending By Private Companies Will Mean Job Cuts At Lincoln Student Loan Company Nelnet, a company spokesman said Friday. “We are very disappointed by this political news,” spokesman Ben Kiser said. “We believe it is poor public policy that will eliminate a part of our business and result in job losses in our community.” Kiser declined to give any details about the scope of the cuts, although he said they will occur over the next several months. Nelnet employs about 2,100 people, including more than 800 in Lincoln. The provision to end the Federal Family Education Loan Program and to channel all federal student lending directly through the government was tacked on to the controversial health insurance overhaul reconciliation legislation.” (“End Of Student Loan Program Will Mean Job Cuts At Nelnet,” Lincoln Journal Star, 3/26/10)

And more from this post:

STUDENT LOAN CENTER IN LYNN HAVEN, FLORIDA: “It’s Devastating With The Swipe Of A Pen We Can Wipe-Out 700-Jobs.” “Another potential nail in the coffin for SallieMae Thursday. The U.S. Senate has passed a Health Care Reconciliation bill. The ‘fix it’ bill reshapes parts of the new health care overhaul law. The Democrats voted down all 40 Republican amendments to the bill. One of those was an amendment offered by Florida Senator George Lemieux that would have protected SallieMae and some 700 local jobs. Lemieux’s proposal would have stripped the health care bill of the language which basically takes the student loan program from the private sector. The bill now goes back to the House for a final vote. ‘It’s devastating with the swipe of a pen we can wipe-out 700-jobs.’ Renee Meng said it was a sad day for the SallieMae center in Lynn Haven where she described the staff as devastated and heartbroken.” (“Time Could Be Short For SallieMae In Lynn Haven,” WJHG-NBC, 3/25/10)

Thousands of jobs lost. People who can’t feed their families, send their children to university or even get medical care. All because of Obama. The voters had fears about the future. And the voters believed that he could make real life go away with a magic wand called “big government”.