Today in Washington, D.C. - Mar 25, 2010 - AGAIN: "Repeal And Replace" ObamaCare

The Senate today resumed its vote-a-rama on amendments to the health care reconciliation bill, H.R. 4872. Non-stop voting resumed early in the morning and is expected to continue through much of the day.

Last night, Senate Democrats voted down 23 Republican amendments, until the Senate took a break for the night at 3 AM. A full list of Republican amendments is available here

Included last night were, 54 Democrats voted to keep the special deals for Tennessee, Louisiana, Connecticut, and Montana, 57 Democrats voted against assuring that the health care bill wouldn’t raise premiums, 55 Democrats voted to preserve an unaffordable entitlement one called a “ponzi scheme,” 56 Democrats against preventing Medicare savings from being used to fund a new entitlement program, and 57 Democrats voted to allow the health exchanges to subsidize E.D. drugs for sex offenders.

Barely a day after President Obama signed his unpopular $2.6 trillion health care takeover into law, there’s suddenly a flood of stories pointing out the real negative consequences this flawed bill will have for businesses and the economy.

A Wall Street Journal story reports today, “Caterpillar Inc. said Wednesday it will take a $100 million charge to earnings this quarter to reflect additional taxes stemming from newly enacted U.S. health-care legislation. . . . Caterpillar has argued that higher taxes and other potential cost increases related to insurance coverage mandates in the legislation will hinder the company's recovery this year after a 75% plunge in income during 2009. ‘From our point of view, a tax increase like this cannot come at a worse time,’ said Jim Dugan, a Caterpillar spokesman.” Ironically, a little over a year ago, President Obama appeared at Caterpillar’s East Peoria, IL, facility to tout his $862 billion stimulus bill saying, “[W]hat's happening at this company tells us a larger story about what's happening with our nation's economy, because, in many ways, you can measure America's bottom line by looking at Caterpillar's bottom line.”

Unfortunately, it’s becoming clear that the health care bill is going to hurt the bottom line of Caterpillar and many other companies. As President Obama visits Iowa today to once again attempt to sell the health care bill to a skeptical public, the Des Moines Register reports, “Deere & Company [a.k.a John Deere], Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, said in a statement this morning that the recently-passed health care legislation will cost the company $150 million after tax this year.”

The Wall Street Journal editors point out today, “Even before President Obama signed the bill on Tuesday, Caterpillar said it would cost the company at least $100 million more in the first year alone. Medical device maker Medtronic warned that new taxes on its products could force it to lay off a thousand workers. Now Verizon joins the roll of businesses staring at adverse consequences.”

The Boston Herald reports, “A dire warning from Bay State medical-device companies that a new sales tax in the federal health-care law could force their plants - and thousands of jobs - out of the country has rattled Gov. Deval Patrick, a staunch backer of the law and pal President Obama. ‘This bill is a jobs killer,’ said Ernie Whiton, chief financial officer of Chelmsford’s Zoll Medical Corp., which employs about 650 people in Massachusetts. . . . ‘We could be forced to (move) manufacturing overseas if we can’t pass along these costs to our customers,’ said Whiton.”

Meanwhile, in a case of seriously unanticipated consequences, it appears that ski resorts that employ a large number of people in Colorado and New Hampshire could get “hammered” by the health care bill. The Steamboat Pilot reports, “Steamboat Ski Area officials said Tuesday that the federal health care overhaul could cost their business as much as $2 million a year beginning in 2014. . . . ‘The potential impact to Colorado Ski Country member areas is somewhere between $9 million and $14 million in penalties (per year),’ Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. President Chris Diamond said Tuesday, citing a Colorado Ski Country USA estimate. ‘It’s a stunning blow to any large employer like ours that employs seasonal staff.’”

And then there’s the student loan industry, which is hit by the student loan takeover Democrats added to the health care reconciliation bill. That could result in the loss of 700 jobs in Muncie, Indiana. And according to an Indiana paper, “Phillip Walsh, a senior director at Sallie Mae’s office in Fishers, [IN] said the company will lose approximately 2,500 of its 8,500 jobs.”

Not only is the health care bill a bad idea for Americans from a fiscal and medical perspective, it’s now clear that it will be a job killer. It needs to be repealed and replaced. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told Politico yesterday, “at the top of our list would be to repeal and replace this health care bill.”

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Tags: government healthcare, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C., polls, Democrats, socialized health care, military
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