Greedy Democrats buy votes with other peoples money

Sally Pipes:

Wal-Mart just announced that it will not offer health insurance to new employees who work less than 30 hours a week. It's reserved the right to do the same for existing workers.

For these new policies, Wal-Mart's employees can thank ObamaCare.

The federal health reform law's "employer mandate" requires companies with over 50 employees to provide insurance for anyone working 30 or more hours a week or face fines. That creates a strong incentive for companies to push their workers into a workweek fewer than 30 hours — and thereby avoid the additional costs ObamaCare intends to saddle them with.

Wal-Mart isn't alone. The employer mandate will make it harder for many businesses to operate efficiently, to hire new employees — or to ensure that existing employees can stay on full time.

Papa John's CEO John Schnatter recently came under fire for stating that the employer mandate will take a bite out of his company's pie. He said that his pizza chain's franchisees would likely cut back employee hours — and that ObamaCare would add up to 14 cents to the cost of each pizza.

The owner of several Denny's franchises in Florida has contemplated slapping a 5% ObamaCare surcharge on every meal, and a New York Applebee's franchisee has said he may stop hiring because of the additional costs borne by the law.

ObamaCare's defenders suggest that these businessmen are just greedy. But it's been widely known that the employer mandate would deliver a hefty blow to businesses since the president's health care reform law was merely a bill.

In early 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the employer mandate would force businesses to pay $52 billion in tax penalties from 2014 to 2019.

That money will have to come from somewhere — whether higher prices for consumers or reduced wages for workers.

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When the federal government does this to the states is is called unfunded mandates and one of the reforms Congress passed in the 90's prohibited the practice.  But when it comes to healthcare the Obama Democrats are real big at requiring expenditures by others.  It is an interesting kind of greed to use other peoples money in their vote buying scheme.  It is a scheme that is very unpopular with certain voters such as small business owners and seniors who saw a transfer of money dedicated to their care transferred to others under the act.

The government has become its own mechanism of greed.  A business has to offer a product or a service that people want in order to make money.  Government can just take it at the point of a gun if you refuse.  That is called armed robbery if a non government entity engaged in the same conduct.