As the Heritage Foundation's James Sherk predicted, workers across the country are being harmed by Obamacare. Sherk explained that because the health care law requires employers to offer health benefits to full-time employees, many unskilled workers would be forced out of full-time employment. Such is the case with one Taco Bell employee who has had her hours reduced to part-time status making her ineligible for employer-provided health insurance.
What is most regrettable is that this problem was avoidable and, again, very predictable. Still, the liberals are putting their twisted spin on things.
The Huffigton Post says that "fast-food franchises across the nation are blind-siding hourly employees by cutting their weekly hours... to dodge Obamacare costs." Well, blind-siding implies that no one saw this coming and that no one warned that this would happen, which is patently false. Not only did conservatives warn against this, but we offered excellent, feasible alternatives, such as the health care reforms detailed in Heritage's Saving the American Dream plan.
The National Restaurant Association also expressed its strong concern about the detriments of Obamacare to businesses and workers after the Supreme Court decided to uphold Obamacare. In a news release, Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association (NRA), stated, "We encourage Congress to continue efforts to repeal the law, since the Court's decision leaves the employer requirements in place, provisions which impact restaurant operators' ability to grow and create jobs."
The letter went on to explain that the costs of covering insurance for full-time employees or of having to pay the alternative penalties "could threaten the very slim profit margin on which most restaurants operate." The NRA feared the "excessive costs and regulatory burdens that threaten their very businesses."
Sherk laid out the implications clearly:
Obamacare requires employers to provide extensive health benefits or pay a penalty. These premiums raise the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker with family health coverage to almost $14 per hour. Unskilled workers who produce less than this will find it very difficult to find full-time jobs. Employers will not hire them at a loss. Instead, businesses will dump these workers into the government exchanges and replace full-time jobs with part-time jobs.
The weak economy has made it very difficult for unskilled individuals to find work. Obamacare will make it even more difficult for them to obtain full-time jobs.
Again, the research was there. The warnings were there. Obama and his liberal friends just didn't take heed, preferring instead the massive federal government power grab not so fondly known as Obamacare. As Ed Feulner asked in the beginning of 2012:
Who should be in charge of your health care - you, or the government? That, in a nutshell, is what the debate over Obamacare is about.
Ultimately, for Obama, it's all about control.