Tag Archives: Jobs

Michele Bachmann explains the impact of health care mandates on small businesses

Michele Bachmann explains what would happen if small businesses were forced to provide health care for their employees.

There are really too many companies – some of the small ones should just go out of business. People don’t really need a choice of employers, do they? Wouldn’t it be much better if everyone were taken care of by the government? Then we would all be equal, just like the socialists want! Free labor markets and right-to-work laws are so nasty, because people are paid different salaries. It’s not fair!

Gateway Pundit linked to a video of John Kyl, who explains the problems with Obamacare.

The Republican plan:

“Republicans have put forward common-sense ideas, including rooting out Medicare and Medicaid fraud, reforming medical liability laws to discourage frivolous lawsuits, strengthening wellness and prevention programs that encourage healthy living, and allowing small businesses to band together and purchase health insurance like large corporations do.

“These changes do not require government takeover of the healthcare system, or massive new spending, job-killing taxes, or rationing of care.

The Democrat plan:

“Democrats in Congress have a different approach. Their plan would increase spending by more than two trillion dollars when fully implemented, and would, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “’add additional costs onto an already unsustainable system.’

“It would empower Washington, not doctors and patients, to make health care decisions and would impose a new tax on working families during a recession. A study by the respected Lewin Group shows it would also move millions of people who are happy with their current insurance to a new government plan.

“They propose to pay for this new Washington-run health care system by dramatically raising taxes on small business owners. Small businesses create jobs — approximately two-thirds of new jobs in the last decade.

“With a shaky economy and the need for new jobs, the last thing the President and the Congress should do is impose new taxes on America’s small businesses. New taxes on small business would cripple job creation, especially jobs for low-wage earners.

Don’t forget about my post from last week with all the wonderful podcasts. I listened to them all again, taking notes, and re-organized them with headings for you. They are awesome! Plus I read some more of the Regina Hertzlinger book. A lot of people came by to ask me about it while I was reading it, including the waitress! She could barely speak English, but I tried to explain it to her anyway.

MUST-SEE: New ad compares Obama’s job-creation rhetoric then and now

The video is up at Hot Air. (H/T 4Simpsons)

So what is the unemployment rate now? How well is Obammunism working?

WHTR News reports:

President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill to revive the economy is a staggering figure. So why then is there talk in Washington about a possible second stimulus package to jolt the American economy out of recession?

Economists say that only 10 percent of stimulus dollars have been spent and the president’s plan has been criticized for not creating enough jobs.

“You can’t justify it logically. You have to justify it politically and that’s what this comes down to. It’s political distribution of dollars,” said Matt Will, University of Indianapolis.

When the president signed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law in February, he said it would create new jobs. Yet unemployment now stands at almost 9.7 percent, the highest in over two decades.

When will voters learn that there is no way to stimulate an economy by spending? The right way to stimulate an economy is by creating jobs, by passing laws to encourage businesses to expand and hire more employees. For example, we could have spent 400 billion dollars and cut the employer portion of payroll taxes, so American workers would go on sale. The Democrat porkulus bills (1 and 2) did noting to create private sector jobs.

Remember, Democrats caused this recession and Republicans tried to stop them. Why should we trust Democrats to get us out of the mess they put us into?

Sarah Palin crushes cap-and-trade in the Washington Post

Sarah Palin’s op-ed in the Washington Post is called “The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End”. (H/T Watts Up With That, Gateway Pundit, Stop the ACLU)

Excerpt:

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

…The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will “necessarily skyrocket.” So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.

Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, “poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity.”

Meh. It’s merely excellent. Somewhat superlative.

Not nearly as good as Michele Bachmann could do, and Michele is conservative on vouchers and illegal immigration, unlike Sarah. See, Sarah writes about supply-side economics once in a while, but Michele gives passionate speeches about supply-side economics every day:

And Michele likes Christian apologetics more than Sarah! Sarah probably doesn’t even know who William Lane Craig is! Michele should be President, Sarah can be Secretary of Energy.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air comments on Sarah’s article:

We need to make all of this clear.  Cap-and-trade rations energy production, which means there will be less of it for a long time.  Alternatives are not ready for the kind of mass production that would allow a complete replacement of energy, and probably won’t be for decades, if ever in some cases (notably wind power, as GreenChoice showed and as T. Boone Pickens finally realized).  That means a lower standard of living that will impact America regressively, with the lowest income earners getting hit the hardest.  The drain on the economy from high energy prices means less jobs and higher retail prices for goods and services, again a regressive consequence of energy rationing.

Obama and his Utopian allies promise that government will help close the gap by offering more services to the unemployed and the poor at the expense of the “rich”.  What will that do?  It will further handicap the economy by keeping capital out of the markets.  Even worse, it will vastly expand the dependent class in America who have to go on the dole to survive.  And many of those ardent liberals will be pretty happy with that outcome, too.

We need to stop this thing. It’s good that Sarah came out against it.