Democrats Admit Companies Were Correct In Warning Of Major Losses Due To ObamaCare

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You recall Waxman’s outrage over large companies, such as AT&T, informing its shareholders that they will be taking large hits due to ObamaCare:

After the passage of the health care reform bill, some public corporations announced the bill would have adverse affects on how they do business. Deere & Co. announced that it would cost them an additional $150M in expenses, Caterpillar stated in an SEC filing they would earn $100M less in 2010, Verizon sent emails to employees informing them of their expected costs to increase in the short term, and AT&T filed with the SEC that they expect a $1B hit because of the new law.

Now, the the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is calling on the “senior company officials” of each of those companies, and others, to come to D.C. and explain / prove their claims. The stated purpose of this meeting is, “to ensure that the [health care] law is implemented effectively and does not have unintended consequences.”


Waxman eventually canceled those hearings and now we know why. The companies were right:

When major companies declared that a provision of the new health care law would hurt earnings, Democrats were skeptical. But after investigating, House Democrats have concluded that the companies were right to tell investors and the government about the expected adverse effects of the law on their financial results.

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In a memorandum summarizing its investigation, the Democratic staff of the committee said, “The companies acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards in submitting filings to the S.E.C. in March and April.”

Moreover, it said, “these one-time charges were required by applicable accounting rules.” The committee staff said this view was confirmed by independent experts at the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Academy of Actuaries.

Mr. Waxman, the chairman of the committee, and Mr. Stupak canceled a hearing at which they had planned to question executives on the effects of the law.

A tabulation by the United States Chamber of Commerce shows that at least 40 companies have taken charges against earnings that total $3.4 billion since the law was signed.

Ed Morrissey:

Democrats knew full well that they had ended the tax credit for the subsidy that keeps retirees on private, employer-based prescription coverage. They did that deliberately in order to gain $5.4 billion in revenue to close the gap for the CBO analysis of ObamaCare. That money comes right off of the balance sheets of private industry — in fact, Democrats counted on it.

Now the private sector has $3.4 billion less to invest in new jobs and expansion (with more writedowns coming), plus Democrats have incentivized these companies to dump their retirees into the overextended Medicare Part D program.

Do we hear a public apology by Waxman for insinuating the large companies, that employ tens of thousands of people, were just playing politics instead of following SEC laws?

Nope….and we never will. He and his cohorts knew what they were doing, you have to vilify big business in their world of leftist ideals.

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Curt, here is the honest truth; I know for a fact, after 33 years with what is now AT&T, that retirees are going to lose their prescription drug plans, probably in January, 2012. That will force those retirees, who currently pay NOTHING for the AT&T prescription drug program, to take the government plan, or frankly, do without because any retiree who has yet to reach the age of 65 will not be eligible for Medicare Part D.

I also know this; the exemption that the health care insurance reform bill (not to be confused with any reform on health care costs) gave to unions does not apply to those union members who work for AT&T simply because unlike SEIU or the Teamsters, their insurance is provided by the company, not by the union. With AT&T estimating that it costs $10,083/yr for health insurance just for the employee, and not including dependents, that will make the cost of those plans for a family to exceed the “Cadillac” tax exemption. AT&T will have the choice of a) paying that tax and reducing dividends to stock holders by a LOT; b) passing those taxes on to the employee or c) paying the federal fine and no longer provide health insurance to its employees.

For months, the CWA pimped for the health care insurance reform bill, sending out frequent news letters and telling members to get out and push for the bill. But after the bill was passed, a remarkable thing happened; not ONE word was in the CWA newsletter about the bill. It doesn’t take a rocket sciendist to figure out why; the union pushed for a plan that is going to screw its members royally.

Now, CWA members are facing a “come to Jesus” moment in the 2012 elections. They will have lost a benefit that has been bargained for over the years, and they will be facing losing even more health care benefits with their next contract with companies like Verizon and AT&T in 2014 or absorbing a major portion of the cost themselves. Either way, they were screwed by the CWA who donated a lot of money to the Obama campaign.

How dare those “evil” corporations tell the truth! Hmmm, wonder if this little revelation will make as big of a splash in the MSM that the hearings and the announcements by the corps did?

Nah, probably not. Can’t have news like this reaching the American public, now can we?

Waxman was the one playing politics here. The threat to haul CEO’s up for questioning got dumped as soon as it became clear that the truth would highlight Waxman’s own ignorance about the bill.

@retire05: Didn’t Obama promise us that if you like your plan you can keep it? Will the Communications Workers union now come out and demand repeal of the law to save their members?

CWA members should dumpt their union leadership for forcing this on them.

Mike’s America, the CWA blindly went along with the Democrat (I don’t call them Democratic, because there is nothing “democratic” about them) Party. The CWA was too damn stupid to understand that the Democrats desire to enact law that would eventually shove every American on some kind of government restricted health care plan was greater than their loyality to the unions.

So the answer to your question, is “NO”. The unions will continue to blindly follow along with programs that are basically designed to weaken them in the long run. When a company has no large margin of profit for unions to go after, future contracts will lead to less wage increases and fewer benefits. AT&T has no intention of going the way of GM, although for the last 30 years, the federal government has not exercised such a vendetta against another company unless perhaps the oil industry.

Recently, AT&T offered long term employees a “buy out” in order to get them to retire. Many took the deal, which was made before the passage of the health care insurance reform bill, and now are facing, due to their age, winding up without perscription drug benefits and perhaps even having to pay a heafty price for their retirement health insurance.

The CWA has a cadre of lawyers that should have been able to read the bill and understand that it would affect its members. I guess they were all out playing golf, because they really dropped the ball on this one.

OK… So now, supposing that the Hell-Th Care bill gets repealed, what does *that* do to these companies finances? Will they then have to rescind the “charge” that they took, and redo their books for this year?

They’ll probably resist that.

Meanwhile, back at the Politburo oops excuse me the VietCongress, the ‘Rats will use that and other “lock-ins” to claim that OogaBoogaCare CAN’T be repealed. It’s too late. Too much water under the bridge. Blahblahblah. Where’s my botox/pageboy/whatever.

What this made painfully clear is that 1. Henry Waxman is an idiot, and 2. Waxman has little to no knowledge of the laws he helped construct.

Both are very scary.

Here is another Dem/Obama/gov. scam paying off to buddies..
(No Quarter post)

Know the crooks and their roles:George Soros, Joyce Foundation and connection to CCX. What is CCX, the Chicago Climate Exchange, projected to gross 10 Trillion a year is Cap-N-Tax passes. Obama played a pivotal role in the formation of the CCX. (Click here for expose) Barrack Hussein Obama, Board Member of the Joyce Foundation, funded the formation of the CCX. (Valerie Jarrett is still on the board, Obama’s top adviser.) Obama sat on board and funneled money to Ayer’s brother (wild huh, just a guy in his neighborhood) and to form the CCX. AL Gore–Goldman Sachs– GIM: Hold on to your britches, London-based Generation Investment Management sees the Trillion and they purchased a huge stake in Chicago Climate Exchange (fifth largest shareholder.) The founder of GIM is none other than former Vice President Al Gore along with Goldman people. For example other founders are David Blood (former Goldman executive), Mark Ferguson (Goldman) and Peter Harris (Goldman) to name a few. “ Franklin Raines, mega crooked banker and bust Fannie Mae head, uses Fannie Mae (taxpayers money) to buy the technology to measure and manage carbon. The patent was award the day after Obama and Dems won the election. Goldman Sachs owns ten percent of the CCX and its 10 Trillion a year potential. (CCX is 10% owned by Goldman Sachs (GS) and 10% owned by Generation Investment Management (GIM).) Gore, Goldman, and Cap and Trade – Tangled Web of Corruption

http://www.examiner.com/x-14143-Orange-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m4d27-Scandal-Obama-Gore-Goldman-Joyce-Foundation-CCX-partners-to-fleece-USA

Go no… even the Ol’ Grey Lady, NYTs, is picking up on the “oops! tried to create a scandal that wasn’t there!” moment.

But no matter… they never cared how O’healthcare was going to adversely affect business. That’s because short sightedness is an epidemic in the halls of Congress.

But… surprise surprise… the NYTs went even further, pointing out that AT&T, which analyzed that the $4.7 bil they spent on their employee health care in 2009 is far more than the penalties that would be imposed if they don’t offer health care.

AT&T, which took a $995 million charge to reflect the impact of the health care overhaul, said it would be “evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company.”

Uh… what was that about “if you like your healthcare, you can keep it?” And what was that we were saying… and pooh poo’d … that employers would simply drop it and let the employees masses go onto the public system??

Oh yeah… we were all lying…. I remember.

BTW, does anyone else find it curious that Waxman publicly announced the cancellation of the CEO witchhunt on April 15th, and that on April 16th the SEC decided to announce it’s investigation of Goldman Sachs?

hummm…. cover while buggin’ out? naw… couldn’t be

Living in Texas, I have no love nor respect for the unions. They outlived their usefulness a long time ago for the most part. Big reason the big automakers could not compete with foreign business that came in here. I heard union benefits cost the companies $20 per hour alone per employee.

Correct me if I am wrong. I am always open to being more informed, but Texas is not a state that feels all warm and fuzzy about unions.

Henry Waxman is a *tool
(Always has been, always will be.)
Yet he’s also quite a fool.
As is his constituent pool.

Why is it that they like this ass?
(Always has been, always will be.)
Just a windbag full-a-gas.
Will they give his ass a pass?

It can’t be his ugly face.
(Always has been, always will be.)
Keeping him in such a place.
An ass would give a better race.

Still a chance to vote him out
(Always has been, always will be.)
Conservatives, they soon will rout.
Then Henry, he shall surely pout.

* (Definition “tool”: Slang derogatory usage, not proper for polite audiences.)

Gee Curt seeing that Caterpillar is now going to earn 100 million dollars less made me feel really sorry doe them. 100 million dollars sure is a lot of money ! But then I looked up to see what their gross revenues were and saw that it was 33,000 millions. CAT stock has continued to go up since they made this announcement about the 100 million increase in costs/ One of the reasons that American heavy industry is under such pressure is that other countries that have socialized medicine do not have company costs that are as high as our own company paid healthcare. Most other countries have healthcare costs about 50% of our, and their people live longer AND report more health care satisfaction than Americans

“Most other countries have healthcare costs about 50% of our, and their people live longer”

That’s complete bullsh*t.

Try checking out life expectancy after age 50 or 60. Those stupid stats you are citing are altogether screwed because infant mortality is calculated far differently from here. They do not consider infants weighing less than 500 gm. They do not count stillbirths. They do not count infants who do not survive for less than 48 hours. We count all of that.

John Ryan, while you are trying to spout off stats, perhaps you would like to also remark about obesity rates that contribute to life expentancy. The U.S. has the highest obesity rates of any nation, with Mexico a distant second. And who is the fattest of all? Why those people who are getting free food though our welfare system.

Basically, what every nation that has socialized medicine has done is place the cost on the taxpayers, all across the board. But I doubt that 47% of France’s tax filers are zero liability payers like in the U.S. That allows their companies to stay competitive in a world market, because if the cost of health care insurance was dumped on foreign companies like it is on ours, they could not compete with the American producers.

@John ryan…You said:

Caterpillar is now going to earn 100 million dollars less made me feel really sorry doe them. 100 million dollars sure is a lot of money ! But then I looked up to see what their gross revenues were and saw that it was 33,000 millions.

They have a responsibility to their stock holders, and since when is making a profit a bad thing??

One of the biggest reasons that CAT and other heavy equipment makers in the USA are having problems competing is the unions. They demand higher and higher wages, more and more benefits. This has much more to do with the bottom line than health care costs. Besides if we even take you silly premise, the United States Government said to these corporations that if they would offer prescription coverage to their retirees, then they would receive tax breaks to pay for it. Now the Dems in their infinite wisdom took those tax breaks away and are astonished that the corporations are pointing out how much it will cost them to continue that coverage.

When businesses have less money to invest, they hire less workers, they don’t expand, and this hurts the economy. This simple truth is something that you liberals have not been able to grasp.

Oh, BTW would you provide the source for health care stats you are throwing around so easily? Or did you just make them up? I guess we will find out, won’t we?