Utterly vile racial demagoguery from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (via CNS News):
"The Affordable Care Act is the most powerful law for reducing health disparities since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965, the same year the Voting Rights Act was also enacted," Sebelius said. "That significance hits especially close to home. My father was a congressman from Cincinnati who voted for each of those critical civil rights laws, and who represented a district near where the late Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth lived and preached. The same arguments against change, the same fear and misinformation that opponents used then are the same ones opponents are spreading now. 'This won’t work,' 'Slow down,' 'Let’s wait,' they say. But history shows that upholding our founding principles demands continuous work toward a more perfect union...And it requires the kind of work that the NAACP has done for more than a century to move us forward. You showed it in the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation. You showed it by ensuring inalienable rights are secured in the courtroom and at the ballot box. And you showed it by supporting a health law 100 years in the making. "With each step forward, you said to forces of the status quo, 'This will work,' 'We can’t slow down' 'We can’t wait,' 'We won’t turn back.'"
Our supposedly post-racial president has presided over the most race-obsessed administration in recent memory. In Sebelius' imagination, joining the fight to end lynching is roughly equivalent to supporting the individual mandate tax. I don't presume to understand what offends the black community, but this strikes me as a gross misappropriation of the civil rights movement's legacy. Yesteryear's struggle was about securing fundamental human rights, defeating bigotry, and rejecting violent suppression. Today's political dispute is over deficits, premiums, coverage costs and the economic ramifications. Pandering to a black audience by applying the lessons of the former movement to the latter skirmish is about as cheap, tawdry and exploitive as it comes. Shame on her. And by the way, it was her party that spearheaded the perverse opposition to civil rights in the 1960s, and it's her own administration that's been saying "slow down" and "let's wait" regarding Obamacare. Breathtaking. The truth is that the American people are rejecting this law for sensible reasons that have absolutely, positively nothing to do with anyone's skin color. People are worried about what will happen to their families if they're dropped from their existing coverage or priced out of the (unready) exchanges. They're anxious about the coming "premium shocks" being forecast from coast to coast. They're concerned about how the country can afford to add trillions to future deficits through this program when the national debt is already so high. And they're not sure if they'll have a job tomorrow, or next week, or next month because of projections like this:
Nearly two-thirds of accounting professionals in a new poll believe the Affordable Care Act will make it less likely for businesses to hire new employees in the next year. The survey, by the financial information company Sageworks, polled 300 accounting professionals who work closely with private companies. It found that 66 percent of them expect the new health care changes will make it less likely that businesses will add new employees in the next year. Only 2 percent of the survey respondents said the Affordable Care Act makes it “more likely” that businesses will add new employees. The survey was conducted between June 25 and July 16, so it occurred in the period both immediately before and after the Obama administration announced a delay on July 2 in the so-called “employer mandate.”
But hey, they're just professional accountants. What do they know? Over to you, small business owners:
- Concern about Obamacare has increased by 10-points since June 2011 and by 4 points since last quarter.
- 71% of small businesses say the health care law makes it harder to hire.
- Only 30% say they are prepared for the requirements of the law, including participation in the marketplaces.
- Among small businesses that will be impacted by the employer mandate, one-half of small businesses say that they will either cut hours to reduce full time employees OR replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid the mandate. 24% say they will reduce hiring to stay under 50 employees.
Small businesses employ more than half of America's private sector workforce. As a reminder, here are the results of Gallup's recent survey of small businesses:
Who knew America's small businesses were run by so many closet segregationists? Incidentally, the Obama administration's unilateral employer mandate delay places small businesses and families at a distinct disadvantage. While medium and large businesses get a year-long pass, individuals and smaller employers are still bound by the mandate tax. The House passed two bills today; the first codifying Obama's own employer mandate postponement, and the second extending the delay to the individual mandate tax. The White House says the president would veto both bills. John Boehner explains:
Join the conversation as a VIP Member