Earl Pomeroy Won't Let Unemployment Stand in the Way of Government Healthcare Takeover
Earl Pomeroy Won’t Let Unemployment Stand in the Way of Government Healthcare Takeover
Kills Amendment Protecting Americans from Devastating Effects of Democrats’ Small Business Tax Hike
Washington- Earl Pomeroy won’t let crippling unemployment stand in the way of his party bosses’ ongoing crusade to put health care in the hands of federal bureaucrats. Despite his supposed commitment to saving jobs and restoring American prosperity, Pomeroy voted against an amendment that would eliminate a job-killing “pay or play” provision in the Democrats’ health care bill. With the national unemployment rate already nearing 10 percent, Pomeroy’s vote could have devastating consequences.
Pomeroy already put taxpayers on the hook for a trillion dollars in spending that has failed to turn around the country’s ongoing economic woes, and now he has made it clear to middle-class North Dakota families that he has no problem with driving unemployment even higher.
“When Earl Pomeroy thought no one was looking, he pushed through a provision that would allow unemployment to skyrocket in the name of a government healthcare takeover,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Middle-class North Dakota families can look forward to even more job losses in the future thanks to Earl Pomeroy’s blatant efforts to pass yet another piece of the Democrats’ anti-business agenda.”
Background:
Democrats will force small businesses to comply with their onerous bureaucratic rules – or else: “Under the House measure, employers with payrolls exceeding $400,000 a year would have to provide health insurance or pay the 8% penalty. Employers with payrolls between $250,000 and $400,000 a year would pay a smaller penalty, and those less than $250,000 would be exempt. Certain small firms would get tax credits to help buy coverage.
“The relatively low thresholds for penalties triggered the sharpest criticism yet from employer groups, who said the burden on small business is too high and doesn’t do enough to help them expand insurance coverage”. (Adamy and Meckler, “Small Business Faces Big Bite,” Wall Street Journal, 7/15/09)
A wide-ranging coalition of business groups recognize that the ‘pay or play’ scheme will kill jobs by ‘fiat’: “We are specifically concerned with a proposal to mandate that employers either provide health insurance or pay a new eight percent payroll tax. The House “pay or play” proposal is even more troublesome because employers are also mandated to pay the majority of employee premiums. Exempting some micro-businesses will not prevent this provision from killing many jobs. Congress should allow market forces and employer autonomy to determine what benefits employers provide, rather than deciding by fiat.” (Multi-Industry Letter on Health Care Reform, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 7/14/09)
Small business groups immediately registered opposition, saying Democrats’ plan ‘threatens’ growth and job creation: “As our nation’s economy struggles to stabilize, policymakers agree that economic recovery, growth and job creation demand our focus and attention,” [National Association of Manufacturers] Executive Vice President Jay Timmons wrote in a letter to House Members. “However, some legislative proposals not only threaten sustainable growth and job creation, but also our economy’s ability to recover at all.”
“[National Federation of Independent Business] opposes the bill, it said, because “it threatens the viability of our nation’s job creators, fails to increase access and choice to all small businesses, destroys choice and competition for private insurance and fails to address the core challenge facing small business — cost.” (Murray, “NAM, NFIB Criticize House Health Care Proposal,” Roll Call, 7/15/09)
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