In the newest business-crippling injustice from the Obamacare debacle, new requirements are being put in place dictating that employers will have to swear to the IRS that they aren’t firing employees because of Obamacare.
That’s right. If an employer wants to get into that sweet spot of employee numbers (50-99) to keep his Obamacare costs down, he will have to swear that any firings were not motivated by Obamacare. That means two things for the Obama administration’s PR wizards.
First, some companies that want to fire employees to save themselves from Obamacare cost increases will retain those employees because managers can’t conscience lying about layoff motivations. I would imagine this will happen the vast minority of the time.
I think the second option is much more likely: companies will fire the required number of employees and just lie about it. They will come up with plausible sounding motivations having nothing to do with Obamacare to save themselves a little money.
But that second option, because of this new requirement, still won’t hurt Obamacare in the PR department. Because the IRS and the Obama administration will have proof that Obamacare didn’t cause the layoffs. They will have sworn testimonies that, whatever the reason for all the layoffs, Obamacare cannot be blamed! No matter how much conservative pundits try to blame the stagnating economy on Obamacare madness, the Obama administration will now have hard numbers denying the correlation.
Chris Stirewalt of Fox News nails the doublespeak here:
To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.
This is a brilliant, but highly troubling, move from an administration that is already Big Brothering America into an Orwellian dystopia the distress of which only a lead sedative to the base of the neck could pacify.
Does this actually have the force of law? If so, do we have a brave employer who would like to say they laid off people due to Obamacare that would allow a case to actually go to court. Seems that’s the only way to test the behaviour of the administration.
The leftist communists that support the dictator-in-chief believe we are living in utopia today while tyranny is displayed every day by this regime as shown by this absurd demand on employers.
Another possible solution: Start slashing wages. You don’t have to say it’s due to obamacare. You can show the IRS that your costs went up and you had to cut wages. Do it enough, people will notice.
Yep… your employees will notice and leave, which will get you to the number you want. Unfortunately your best employees will leave first. They are the ones with better resumes and will have an easier time finding a new job. End result is having lowered Obama care, lower wages, lower morale, lower quality of worker, and in time lower business and customers.
There is never winning when government gets involved with business. Just like a bull in a china shop, if the owners spook the bull to much everything is destroyed, if the owner accepts the fact something will be destroyed and try to keep the bull calm he may save some of the China. If you had no bull/government or very small bull then less damage…
You give them the 1/2 the difference in pay for the one’s you’re laying off. They’ll stay.
Sure–that makes a lot of sense. Pay the ones (not “one’s”) who are retained 150% of their current salary for doing the same amount of work they have been doing. Yeah, that’s a great business plan.
Would you work harder if someone were to give you a 50% raise? Enough said.
You will not have 1/2 the difference in pay…. The government is taking it in taxes. Businesses do not have money presses and just make as much as they wish… They have a limited amount they can make. The more the government becomes involved the less the business can make, therefore must lay people off (because they do not have the funds to pay them).
You miss the point. You don’t have to increase the others pay by 50%. I’m in business. I cannot afford by governmental mandate to keep xyz number of people. Government says I cannot let them go because of their mandated health care law that will bankrupt me and put all my employees out of work. So I need to make some business decisions. I can fire people. But I have to sign an affidavit attesting that I didn’t let anyone go due to their mandate (which gives them deny-ability for their lousy law). So I cut wages of some until they can no longer work for me. They walk because they cannot afford to continue to work for me. The ones I want to keep I can do so by strategically increase their wage. They’ll want to stay. IF I decide to increase their wage at all. How many people do you employ?
Then you missed my first point. I was assuming the business cut everyone’s wage to cover expenses. Which will cause the following: You’d loose all your best employees first after cutting wages. As they will have an easier time finding a new job and will start job hunting after the first cut… which means you have lower productivity (lower quality of employee) and lose customer in time, therefore lose sales.
Anyway you want to do it, it is an ugly thing to do. And the problem stems from one source… the Government getting more involved.
Being a business owner, I can cut and chose who’s pay to cut. Which employees’ salary to increase. I can make decisions to keep my best workers and get rid of others, or consider upgrading and more automation. You assume too much. You’re assuming I don’t know which employee works hard(er) and which works to just get by. Bad assumption on your part.
I did not assume anything…. Matter of fact you would be a horrible employer if you did not know the things you listed. I made the assumption that the cuts need would be to great not to be across the board. So, everyone was getting a pay cut. You also state cut pay in half without out listing, cut all but not for you best or top employees. Which of course one has to be very careful there. If word would get out on what you did (cutting some peoples but not others), you could be looking at a large class action law suit. Legal action regarding employees pay is not any area you wish to play games.
How many people do you employ Paul?
This is absolutely illegal and a violation of free speech. These people are Marxist nutcases! I just have to ask – how far are Americans going to let this thing go?
These people have nothing to do with Marxism. They are fascists, medical industry fascists to be precise.
Correct! Fascism is government control of private business and the resulting marriage of the two. Guilt ridden Conservatives call it “crony capitalism” but it is correctly labeled “fascism.” So what are the consequences of firing ten people to get under one hundred and then admitting it? Are there fines and penalties? What are the phony baloney Republicans going to do about this? Nothing. Keep your powder dry. It is waaaay past time for civil disobedience.
Marxist…Yes…Nutcases…Not a chance…these a__es have their heads screwed on straight! Remember, the American people elected this Marxist twice!!
Take note, especially union members, that union leaders have voted and supplied $millions in political contributions and physical backing, to become members of the king’s inner circle. That would mean that an employee would have little backing in the event of a problem. Better pay attention……
Yet another example of why this President and his policies need to go away. Now he wants employers to lie to the IRS.
Why would anyone agree to such a statement? This article makes no mention of any penalty for NOT swearing that any firings are not due to obamacare. I would want everyone to know that yes, obamacare DOES cause layoffs, salary reductions, conversion from full-time to part-time employees, etc. I am a consulting engineer, and this administration has almost wiped us out. My firm had dwindled from 23 people in 2009 to 6 (including one part-time) in 2010, and all of us had taken salary reductions (over 50% reduction for my partner and me; 35% for everyone else). Shortly after passage of the “ARRA” (other wise known as the wasted “stimulus”), our need for work was so desperate that we agreed to do four projects involving ARRA funding. As part of the requirements, we had to sign a document stating that jobs were “saved or created” as a result of doing this work. I bit my tongue, swallowed my pride, and signed the document, because we needed the work so badly. Of course, my signature and all others involved in this debacle were used as propaganda to tout the “benefits” of the “stimulus”. Adding insult to injury, we were required to purchase, for each project, an 8 by 4 foot sign and erect it in front of the project. The sign had to meet certain requirements involving the ARRA logo, etc. as an advertisement of the greatness of this corrupt administration. There were only a few vendors nationwide that had been approved as suppliers of these ridiculous signs, so as a result each sign added about $2,000 to the cost of the project. Of course, I’m sure none of those vendors had any connection to the Obama administration…
My employer makes us sign a document that says how many hours we individually spent on government projects. Part of the same scam that you had to deal with. My job was “created or saved” (yeah right) by government projects which had been in the works for literally a decade in some instances. Paid for by a local levy or tax. Suddenly EVERYTHING is a “stimulus” job. The signs say so. In one egregious instance about 30 feet of pavement resurfacing actually was paid for by stimulus funds. The gc said so. The rest of the 3 year project consisting of about 40 MILES of resurfacing was paid for by all of us who were working on the project (we all pay local taxes) along with the rest of the working class people of the area. The huge SIGN touted the entire project as a “stimulus” undertaking. Hogwash. We paid for it here. AND we paid/will pay for the stimulus funds as well.
Yep, we have done a good bit of MDOT (state Dept. of Transportation) work, and I have seen a lot of what you described regarding insignificant percentages of stimulus funding leading to claims of saving the world. I could retire on the amount of money spent on signs purchased with taxpayer dollars.
I am sorry but WHAT????? When exactly did we do away with the Constitution????? This is totally illegal and when is someone going to do their job in congress and stop with crap!!!!
You can’t afford to pay health care premiums for you’re employees. So you have one of two choices. Fire them. But the “regulation” says you can’t? Or two cut wages until they too become dependent on the government. Another slick move to destroy the economy. The liar and thief needs to be impeached.
If you run a company and your bottom line goes red because of the ACA, shouldn’t you be allowed to let people go?
Of course, love to see the IRS enforce Obozocare on a company that is in the red and lets people go.
It’s not a violation of free speech.
The law says you can’t fire someone to avoid giving them medical insurance. Just like you can’t fire them for being Black, or for attending a political rally. If you do, you’ll probably face a fine.
So, if you do, you have the choice of either lying, or admitting publicly that you broke the law.
So they will lie – big deal, legally very hard to prove that they lied to avoid Obozocare. No one will be prosecuted, but lots of working people will lose their jobs.
The Government is forcing people to say things the do not want to say, forcing them to lie. That is how free speech is being violated.
It is a major deal to force someone to lie for you to cover your own butt… Believe or not many business owners are very moral and lying is a major issue for them…
The government isn’t “forcing” them to say anything. After they have BROKEN THE LAW, the government is merely asking them what they have done. They have the choice of either lying, or admitting they’ve broken the law.
It’s stupid to claim the government is “forcing” them to lie, when in fact, the government would prefer them to tell the truth.
lets see:
Lie: pay no fines, feel bad that you lied to save your company from fines.
Tell the truth:
Pay massive fines, make less profit, get tax audit every year, lose any possible government contract you may have been working on, and more…
You want to re-think your thought about not being forced…. Sure it is still a choice, but really not much of a choice.
Odd that you include “feel bad that you lied to save your company from fines.” but not “feel bad about firing people to protect your profits”.
You completely left out the third option: NOT firing the people in the first place.
well if I list firing people maybe I would have… but i did not talk about firing people…. (firing was implied of course).
The point was lying is moral issue. Lying is immoral. Firing someone because you can not afford to pay them is not a moral issue, sad in most cases yes, but not moral or immoral thing.
I left out the third options, because not firing people would ultimately mean going out of business. Then you can feel bad about running the company into the ground and causing everyone to be unemployed. If you have to lay people off because you can not afford the insurance and such, then you are having negative gains and it is only a matter of time before you have to close the doors for good.
and pay horrific health care costs, which could cause you to have to close your business. James … you’re either a democrat or a dummy … or both.
Given that Obama told all that … “If they liked their current health care plan, they could keep it” AND that Obama Care would have premiums that were $2500 per year lower, these business owners are entitled to lie, in return.
In essence, he promised them that they could keep their insurance as it was OR they could go with Obama Care and save big bucks. Both were LIES.
Now that Business Owners are faced with skyrocketing health care costs, based on LIES that Obama knew were LIES, they should be free to adjust their bottom line by letting people go … democrats first.
So now Obama is forcing people to commit perjury.
Well There’s another way around it as well. Fire em for being lazy or company theft. (That package of salt they put on their lunch) Then out front put up A HUGE sign saying WE CAN’T AFFORD TO HIRE DUE TO OBAMACARE. No lies needed.
Where in the constitution does it say, that the federal government has the authority to question management decisions in a private company?
There is a thrid option. Tell the truth. What are they (the government) going to do? Charge you as though you had 100+ employees? Just how well does the government think that will hold up in court?
The federal court system is rigged with too many Carter / Clinton / Obama leftists and anyone brought before a federal court is going to get hammered to smithereens. Everyone would have to up and say they laid people off to avoid Obamacare, or no one. Examples will be made.
I do not understand why there is not more criticism of Obamacare for requiring people to pay a corrupt and deadly industry that they probably don’t want to have anything to do with in the first place. The medical industry kills about 200,000 yearly; their own numbers, and now Obamacare promises to skyrocket that number into the stratosphere. And remember, our medical system is NOT based on healing – it is based on symptom management. For greater understanding I suggest people research “Maurice Fishbein” – the circus clown behind the AMA.
The current system is based upon the most profitable means of producing a desired result. The FDA is an organized criminal enterprise engaging in pay for play extortion. It takes ten years and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring a new drug to market, so only the most profitable make it, not necessarily the best. Most drugs are toxic and have side effects worse than the disease they are fighting, but the dues were paid and now we’re stuck with them.
Do you REALLY think an employer will answer this question honestly? Keep holding you breath!!!
I think it’s time they actually do. Company CEO comes and says we’re laying off “x” employees, because we can’t stay in business if i keep them and have to pay for Obamacare.
I mean this is one of those times, where they should say, Okay, You don’t want me to lie? I wont lie… your bill just made “x” more unemployed people.
They followed the regulation.. So no Perjury , no fines, nothing.
As far as I am concerned with this is if I feel like scaling my business any way I wish the IRS and whoever can pound sand. If I feel like shutting the door on one or all of my businesses and firing everyone of my employees as a sole proprietorship or partnership because maybe I have enough money and don’t need them or simply just don’t care, I can and will if I so choose.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/9132846085_dcb829c159_o.jpg
This will just add to the daily list of scandal that is the MO of this amateur administration staffed with dark souled criminals (liberals). The obumblers supporters are starting to turn on him….. http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/17607-obama-apologists-slam-lawless-obamacare-rewrites
Obama Apologists Slam Lawless ObamaCare Rewrites: When even pro-Obama apparatchiks are crying foul over Obama’s lawless implementation of ObamaCare — unilaterally changing, delaying, and re-writing over a dozen major provisions of the “Affordable Care Act” in violation of the actual statute — you know the situation is getting bad. That is exactly what is happening, though, with some of the president’s staunchest allies in the establishment press now up in arms about the administration’s latest refusal to follow the increasingly unpopular “healthcare reform” scheme Obama signed and demanded from Congress. Vulnerable Democrats are running from ObamaCare ahead of 2014 elections, to.
The Irs gets sued all the time, just get it before a judge, preferably not a liberal one.
Obama is not capable of generating any facts. He throws out the facts and leaves only the lies. Why tell the liar in chief the truth anyway. To date if Obama took a survey and told the truth no one would believe him. He’s incapable of telling the truth!
Will NO ONE speak up and declare this policy to be unConstitutional? The federal government does not have ANY right to decide what the motives of businesses are in the hiring and firing of workers. They have NO business telling them that they can’t do everything possible to reduce costs and God forbid, make a profit by avoiding the outrageous costs of Obamacare! The very fact that Obama has ‘changed’ a law already passed by the Congress and signed into law over 27 times is totally illegal! And agencies like the IRS and the EPA have been given FAR TOO MUCH AUTHORITY to make rules and regulations without ANY congressional approval! WE THE PEOPLE PAY THEIR SALARIES and it’s time to put them in their place or abolish them altogether!
Must not upset the furher… Sieg Heil
“Down-Sizing”, does that ring a bell?
These employers would just be relieving employees of the burden of work … as discussed by Nancy Pelosi, when she was espousing the benefits of Obama Care. PS … Fire all of the democrats first.
TPM, I agree 100%. But, we have to consider that Brother Obama would give them lots of our Tax Money i.e. welfare, food stamps, free housing, free medical and lots of other free crap.
“Employers Required to Swear Firings are Not Due to Obamacare” That is a direct violation of employers First Amendment rights and should not be allowed. Business decisions are not under the purview of the federal government or Obama. Businesses make decisions everyday due to tax regulations and restricting their ability to state those decisions is an impeachable offense.
All they have to say is that their costs are too substantial to make a profit … then again no one in this administration would know what you’re talking about anyway!
Sich Heil
I expect these employers to be as honest about this as the Lyin’ King was when he said … “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”
IMO, it’s not legal for Obama to insert himself into the private sector and for him to tell business owners what they can and cannot do, with respect to their health care offerings and staff sizes. He’ll just use this “mandate” to pick on conservative business owners.
It won’t be a lie all you have to say is due to the economy I had no choice to release the people I’ve released!