RISE UP DEMOCRATS….RISE UP BMG…..RISE UP!
What more do you need than NBC News warning us of this bill that is putting more Americans behind the eight ball, people losing income and hours, because employers are simply avoiding the Obamacare tax by cutting their workers hours to under 30 per week.
Joseph Hansen has stood up. “In a letter to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Hansen joined other labor chieftains in warning that the ACA as presently written could “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the middle class.”
“NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees – an unintended consequence of the new law.”
“At St. Petersburg College, a public university in Florida where most of the faculty is part-time, 250 have had their hours reduced for the fall term because the college said it can’t afford to offer them health insurance.” These teachers are losing half their income.
When is enough, enough? How long must we endure this bill as currently written? The backbone of the middle class is being snapped by Obamacare, and all the politicians are on vacation, and far too many are concerned about obscure issues that hardly anyone ever talks about.
Should Obama admit the bill has too many flaws and unintended consequences, and delay the whole thing and re-write it? Will the Republicans offer more than health savings accounts, that few can afford to fund? I guess we will watch the fingers point at one another down in D.C., blaming each other for the abysmal situation many Americans find themselves in. Reminds me of an old plate I use to see on the front of cars back in the day. It read “No phone, No home, No job, No money.” Sad that a joke in the 80’s, now it’s a reality for far too many.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20010062-businesses-claim-obamacare-has-forced-them-to-cut-employee-hours?lite
…I don’t blame Obamacare, but rather employers who would rather go cheap than do right by their employees. That said I do wish we would leave behind entirely the assumption that your employer is your health care provider of first resort.
So “at the risk of feeding the troll”, you are offering what? Speculation?
I haven’t read the above contribution by our assigned Breitbartbot* — nor will I, but, if you want to take this question seriously, you certainly shouldn’t trust that any link (if there are any) actually proves any of the points made.
So again, why not post a separate diary in which you do your homework on this rather than feed the t. huge scoops of guesses here.
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*Speculative but by no means impossible
I’m not sure what you think I’m speculating about. We have heard stories of businesses going to a lot of part time staff, or at least threatening to, using the Obamacare excuse. That doesn’t require checking the link. DFW says the law is bad while I say the employers are making bad choices.
…and kbusch was trying to make that point clear. As she and I have been saying for weeks, the rule is simple: DON”T FEED THE ^&%^%$#%$#$%#%$# TROLL!
Stop taking the bait by replying to his nonsense – in this case he’s quoting nonsense from NBC News, which doesn’t make it any less nonsensical. The folks at NBC decided to do a story about businesses cutting staff hours due to Obamacare, so they went and found a few businesses whose owners were willing to tell a story that fit their narrative. It’s anecdotal at best, it’s lazy “journalism”, and it’s pure troll bait for trolls like DFW. You’ve “heard stories” about employers cutting hours due to Obamacare? DFW is not going to enlighten you, he’s going to fill your head and the pages of this otherwise fine blog with bullshit, and he doesn’t deserve your attention or reply.
When DFW posts anything, if you must reply, reply with DFTT and then start your own post if you want to dig deeper into the issue. Instead of feeding the troll, do a little research – use Google to search for phrases like “companies cutting hours due to obamacare” and you’ll find factual posts like this one:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/29/1227115/-You-Know-All-Those-Employers-Slashing-Hours-Because-Obamacare-Not-So-Much
Feeding the troll gets us nothing but more trollish nonsense – look at his replies in this thread! Please, please, PLEASE DFTFT!!!
U 2 know each other? Too bad you cant get 23 other BMG’ers to vote me off the island till 2014.
…my point stands that IF this were happening employers and not the law would be to blame. Sorry, but it seems on this issue of trollfeeding I’m not completely on board with what seems to be your crusade to shut DFW down quite as hard and as fast.
And I don’t like seeing it polluted with bullshit from the likes of DFW. Replying to his posts and otherwise engaging him just causes more pollution – see his latest nonsense about Keystone, for example. Just don’t reply to it!
You shouldn’t post a diary on this.
You seem to have just arrived from the Land of the Care Bears. Your “point” which still “stands” is not even useful. If the Affordable Care Act turns out to be a reason that there is a significant drop in full-time employment, then yes that is a problem with it. Policy has to built on the fact that we live not among Care Bears, but here, in the real world. In the capitalist system we inhabit, businesses attempt to maximize profit.
To blame them for that is invite comparisons to King Canute.
So not only did you not think through the consequences of troll feeding, you didn’t even think through the content of your comment, with its “still standing” “point” either.
…I noticed both you and kbusch suggested starting my own diary, but that’s not the point. This isn’t a topic that I am interested in delving into further with my own research and original content. My point was in fact to push back on DFW, but I don’t mind doing some engaging. There have been times I have gone along with the DFTT strategy, but frankly I’ve never been completely satisfied with it.
then you are, in fact, speculating.
You may not mind some engaging, but it seems you are completely missing the point that engaging encourages more trollish pollution. It’s not worth whatever tiny and short-lived satisfaction you get for making some kind of point, when the troll gets a massive ego-boost for having sucked you into his game. He isn’t engaging in honest discussion, he’s just seeing how much excitement he can create with contrarian statements that he doesn’t necessarily believe, or care about. They aren’t the point. For him, getting you to respond is the point. When you do, he just fires off another aggravating turd, and the game continues.
Do everyone a favor, and stop playing his game.
He or she should not tell anyone, at least a free person, to STFU. So JV and does not belong on BMG. I don’t care if they say that to me, but it’s unbecoming when said to Christopher, someone who is well respected and makes great contributions to this blog.
Chris- I hope u r not angry with me coming to your defense, but that language hurled against you is vile and I wanted to say something.
Since most countries have some sort of govt run health care/single payer system, and our workers rely on employee sponsored h/c insurance, why not impose a tariff on all imports in order to level the playing field?
Use the funds to pay for the uninsured, and this would help disincentivize businesses from shipping their jobs overseas.
Why is it that Republicans aways clamor for getting the Government to lower Corporate taxes and reduce regulations but when it comes to foreign trade they get all protectionist? It really doesn’t make any sense. In fact, it is idiotic.
What do you think that other countries do when you impose tariffs on their goods? They retaliate in kind. It ensures that the price of all imported goods while at the same time hurting our ability to export our own goods. Meanwhile there will be no barriers from rich people in this country from exporting their wealth overseas and keeping it there.
Regarding the original article, there is absolutely no evidence that any of these businesses really had to cut back hours because of Obamacare. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that there are business owners doing this out of pure spite. The story is really just a puff piece. The reporters only talked to a handful of people chosen to reinforce the story (because there otherwise would not be a good story).
Republicans are protectionists when it comes to trade? News to me.
Obama is proposing lowering the corp tax rate, he a Republican?
As far as other countries retaliating with tariffs of their own, why would that bother you? They need us more than we need them. So I won’t be able to buy crap from China or Mexico? What is fair about putting the American worker at a disadvantage b/c his/her employer has to pay for health insurance? All I am asking is for a level playing field, where environmental and health care costs are equal across the board.
There is no evidence these companies are cutting back, except there are words and people telling you so.
We would be in deep trouble without imports. You can pretend that is not true, but that doesn’t make it so.
Yes, proposing tariffs based on aspects of another governments public policy isn’t even good old fashioned industry protectionism, but is still protectionism, and that means it is anti-free trade. And I fail to see why such a tariff would even the playing field in any meaningful sense. Ultimately, the country as a whole has to pay for its own healthcare. How that is distributed in the economy doesn’t really have anything to do with external countries. Why does it matter whether the employees, companies, or the government pays for healthcare? In the end, it should even out.
Anecdotal evidence is useless because it doesn’t prove anything that cannot be immediately disproved by contrary anecdotal evidence. My company didn’t cut back because of the healthcare law, therefore there isn’t a problem. See? Wasn’t that simple? What idiocy. And of course you totally overlook that people and businesses frequently lie about their motives for doing things. Just because some guy says he needs to cut back because of Obamacare doesn’t mean that he will continue to do so nor that it necessarily makes business sense.
77% of all new jobs created in 2013 are part-time. That you say is anecdotal? I call that alarming.
You are for free trade, yet you rail against companies who offshore the jobs. Which is it???????
1. The requirement for employers to provide health insurance for full-time employees has been around for decades. It’s got nothing to do with the ACA.
2. The ACA actually contains a provision that allows small businesses to opt out of providing coverage, at least they can if the state has set up insurance exchanges so those employees have a place to go to purchase their own coverage.
3. If you don’t like employer-provided health insurance, I have a simple solution for you. It’s called single payer.