Remember when companies started reporting the write-downs they’d take as a result of the passage of Obamacare? You know, the write-downs they were required by law to report?
And remember when the Democrats who shepherded the bill through Congress reacted with outrage at the announcements, and scheduled hearings to demand answers and accounting methods from AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere, and Verizon?
Well, the hearings were canceled, but the congressional inquiry, which pored over hundreds of pages of e-mails and financial documents, has yielded . . . absolutely nothing untoward. In fact, the inquiry concludes that “The companies acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards in submitting filings to the S.E.C. in March and April.” In fact, the Democratic inquiry concluded that “these one-time charges were required by applicable accounting rules.”
UPDATE: Just received an e-mail from somebody within Caterpillar:
CAT employees are able to view a 4 minute video in which Jim Owens talks about the things he WOULD have talked about had the hearings not been canceled. Upon listening to him, it became apparent that the cancellation was a wise political move–Waxman and Stupak would have been exposed for the fools they are by savvy businessmen who know the effect of ill-conceived legislation (Owens has a doctorate in economics). It really is a shame they chickened out. I would have loved to have seen the bloodbath.