In Part I, I discussed how the stage was set for the expectation of government provided health care and the hope that we’d get something for nothing. Part II addressed whether Obamacare was truly “affordable” for the average American.
In this part, I take a look at the dark underbelly of the
legislation and what I believe is the real strategy behind the designers.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. While the
big businesses get all the press, it is the small businesses that form the
foundation and security of our economy. Headlines carry news about the intended
opening of an Amazon headquarter might be, or the earnings of Apple, or the
outsourcing of Chevrolet products, but the nitty-gritty mom and pop
establishment, the independent insurance agent, the gymnastics lessons for your
kids, the attorney on the corner, the lady who opened the McDonald’s franchise
in your town, the couple who rolled the dice on the hair salon – they are the
basis for our economy.
Some statistics: A small business is any business entity
that employs fewer than 500 employees. Small businesses constitute 99.7% of all
private businesses employing firms. Small businesses historically provide more
than 65% of all newly created jobs. Their exports constitute 97.5% of the total
exported goods. The small business sector is comprised of 52% home-based
companies. (Sources: US Dept of Commerce; Census Bureau, and International
Trade Administration.) “
Before we go further, here’s an important question: Did you
know that when liberal politicians attack “the wealthy” as a group, which needs
to pay more taxes, they are generally attacking small businesses? It’s true,
and here’s why: A basic number is this - $380,000 per year. That sounds like a
lot of cash, right? Well, it is if someone hands it to you, tax free. But if
you’re a small businessman or woman, that number doesn’t represent your
take-home pay. No, that is how much you pulled in to put you in the top 1%, but
you still have a lot of obligations to meet – like employee salary and benefits,
like income taxes, like improvements, like advertising, like covering theft or
vandalism, and much, much more. The typical business owner who forms the fabric
of our economy is not a fat-cat riding to work in a limo and taking long vacations
in a glamorous location (that’s for Michelle Obama or the administrators of the
GAO). No, ask most business owners and they’ll honestly tell you they haven’t
taken a vacation in the last couple years, and… and… didn’t take a salary
because after paying the business expenses, there was nothing left. Are they
complaining? No, that’s a fact of life they’ve come to expect; they’ll work
hard for many years, and hopefully, at some point, the business will turn the
corner and a real payday and profitability will provide their security for
retirement.
So, where does Obamacare fit into this discussion? Workers
need healthcare. Workers look for a job that will include healthcare benefits.
Under the Affordable Health Care Act, businesses with more than 50 employees
must offer health care insurance for their employees, or pay a TAX per employee
for failing to do so. Currently, the TAX for failing to offer insurance is
$2,000 per employee, with the first 30 employees being exempted – (go figure).
So a business with 51 employees will pay $42,000.00 in penalty TAXES in 2014 if they do not offer insurance. As we
saw in Part II, the insurance premiums offered by the Affordable Health Care
Act are much greater than affordable
by most standards – for low income earners. So, let’s say that an employer
hires mostly 35 year-olds, and their premium would be approximately $400/month,
or $4,800.00 per year. For starters, if you are being forced by the government
to provide this or pay a TAX, and feel that you’re business is in jeopardy,
would you rather pay $4,800.00 per year for 51 employees ($244,800.00) or the
$2,000 TAX times 21 employees ($42,000.00)?
Okay, now that we realize the employer saves $200,000+ by
paying the TAX, we still have 51 people without medical insurance, and a
business with $42,000.00 less in profits with which to grow – and hopefully
hire more unemployed people. So, the employees still don’t have insurance, the
backbone of our economy – small businesses – have $42,000 less, and the TAX
disappears into a labyrinth of bureaucracy that hires more government workers
to “administrate” the system – employees who will be guaranteed an income
surpassing those employed by the small business and guaranteed a benefits and
retirement package that must be paid by the taxpayer.
Now, if you are a small businessman or woman, at what point
will you stop expanding? Forty-nine employees or fifty? See, this law serves to
put a lid on the growth of small businesses. As soon as they exceed 50
employees, they are penalized for doing so due to mandated health care. When so
many people are unemployed and underemployed, do we really want the backbone of
the American economy to shy away from growth? Do we really want to become a country
that discourages people from developing into Ford, Microsoft, Apple, Nike, etc
because by doing so, the government is going to turn the entrepreneurs into
demons who are portrayed as selfish, greedy land barons as opposed to
innovators who provide cutting edge products and putting tons of people to work?
Or assuming the business remains “small” – if these businesses are creating 65%
of all new jobs in America, do we really want to put roadblocks in their path
that serve to interfere with job creation?
This effect is not by mistake. Obama and those behind this
legislation did not overlook this outcome. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I
believe it’s more the “end game” than an unfortunate outcome. Barack Hussein
Obama has never run a business, nor held a job in the private sector. He is
unabashedly socialist – his Congressional record and Presidential actions stand
ready to prove this. Our President, despite his rhetoric before crowds, wants
the American public to become dependent on government jobs and government
entitlements. It’s the easiest path to a redistribution of wealth, and
dependency on the cradle-to-grave expectation.
Undoubtedly, every person would like to have health care.
But does that make it a RIGHT? Our ancestry in America cherished the right to
have an opportunity, as the Declaration of Independence states “…the pursuit of
happiness…” and being happy would seem to include being healthy. The key word,
though, is pursuit. As much as it
would be “nice” for all people to have full access to top-of-the-line
healthcare, the question still must be answered, Can we afford this, and is the government of the People and by the
People empowered to force the People to pick up the tab? When the responding law to the desire to
provide healthcare puts us in the position of being required to buy government
care the typical family cannot afford, while simultaneously punishing
businesses that make up the foundation of our economy, AND taxing both
businesses and individuals for not buying the mandated insurance, I conclude
that our government has moved beyond the intended limited government our
Founders designed, and well onto the path of intrusion and tyranny. And if
tyranny sounds like I’m using hyperbole to make my point, I encourage you to
study the events which led to our Country’s War of Independence; the Founders
well understood that once they capitulated on principle – giving up their
rights, even a little, the die was cast for anticipating an onslaught of
attacks, which put the British government more and more in control of every
nuance of what constituted individual freedom.