It didn’t take long to kill the messenger.
After the election, the private sector has begun its struggle to cope with hefty health-care fees written into the Obama health law. For many businesses, the fines tip the cost-benefit balance against full-time employees. And employers — for their own sake, and for the sake of their remaining employees — have to cut back on employment, hours, or both. These painful cutbacks are the only way to ensure the long-term health of their businesses; it’s simple, if regrettable, math.
That doesn’t stop the economically (and grammatically) ignorant from calling for boycotts.:
[The CEO of Papa John’s is] also a greedy jerk who, to get around paying for Obama’s Affordable Care Act, plans on cutting all his employee’s hours to below the mandated threshold so he doesn’t have to pay for it — because it would cost him too much money.
… And, unfortunately, Papa John’s is not alone. Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster have all jumped on this bus. Threatening to freeze full hirings and/or reduce employees to skirt the ACA regulations.
Now, bear in mind, that Papa John’s, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster are not small businesses. Each of these companies make millions in profits each year and its workforce is amongst the lowest paid and hardest working in the country. And they care so little about the health and welfare of their employees that they would rather cut their already few low-paying hours than make sure that they are taken care of.
Now, this is America and they have the right to do with their businesses what they want, no matter how scummy it is.
But these businesses need to bear in mind that they are not the only pizza joints, seafood places, and Iitalian [sic] restaurants in the country. … It’s time for the people of America to stand up against these corporate misers who think that their workforce is nothing.
I for one will not be eating at any of these places from this moment forward. And I would ask the same of you also until they state that they will not reduce thier [sic] workforce and hours.
This is America and as Americans it’s time that we start standing up for our fellow countrymen and begin to teach BIG BUSINESS that they are nothing without us.
Granted, indignation is warranted: As one Twitter follower noted to me late last week, it’s truly disgusting that businesses have had to make these employment cuts. But the Obama administration has put the private sector in an untenable position. It’s a rare policy indeed that makes scapegoats out of victims.