The Obamacare Chronicles: 129 laid off from Missouri hospital due to wonderful new health bill

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

At this point, there’s not much we can do about it, folks. Losing a Supreme Court decision and the 2012 election guarantees that Obamacare will go into full effect on January 1st, 2014 — Happy New Year!

All we can do for now is observe and take note of the pain (some of it our own) as businesses make their plans to deal with the forthcoming train wreck, plans that include laying people off to cover the new, federally-imposed expenses:

From Channel 41 Action News (1), Kansas City, Missouri:

I’ve reported on the consequences of Obamacare before, and we’re going to see more and more as we approach 2014 and enter our Brave New World of government-controlled health care. The PPACA imposes immense burdens on businesses, and they will have to act rationally in response, whether by passing on costs to the consumer or cutting costs elsewhere — by layoffs, for instance.

People who voted for the Democrats since 2008 are, in effect, getting exactly what they voted for, even if they refused to see it at the time.  (2) To use the cliche, “elections have consequences.”

But so do bad laws, and the people can always fix their mistakes in the next election. Obamacare is the “Mother of Bad Laws,” and I predict its myriad problems are going to cost the Democrats dearly as voters harmed by Obamacare first get worried, then annoyed, then angry, and then royally ticked off. Democrats are already so worried that some are retiring to avoid facing the voters in 2014.

Elections have consequences for the ruling class, too.

via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt

Footnotes:
(1) For any Obamacare apologists in the audience, before your knee jerks too much, note that Channel 41 is an NBC affiliate, not the evil FOX. When you’ve lost NBC…
(2) No, I’m not saying the people laid off in Missouri all voted for Obama and thus got what they deserved. Some almost certainly did, but we don’t know who or how many. Presuming innocence, they all have my sympathy.  But the broad electorate voted for people who used anti-constitutional means to pass a horrendous law in expectation of getting Free Stuff(tm), in violation of all the laws of economics. To them, I can only quote the words of the late, great Mayor Ed Koch: “The People have spoken … and they must be punished.”

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

So, one of the schmucks who designed Obamacare warns it’s “too complex.”

Now that he’s retiring and doesn’t have to face the wrath of voters, Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) feels free to speak his mind:

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of the towering architects of Obamacare, on Tuesday openly criticized program managers for not moving quickly enough to build the system, warning that if it gets off to a bumpy start it will just get worse.

Decrying the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as way too complex, he warned the acting Medicare director that Obamacare is “so complicated and if it isn’t done right the first time, it will just simply get worse.”

The retiring senator also told Marilyn Tavenner at her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that Obamacare rivals tax reform in its capacity to confuse Americans.

Gee, ya think???

“This? Confusing?? Surely you jest.”

Though I don’t see what Senator “I designed this monstrosity” is complaining about; people can always get a navigator and a translator.

And don’t you find Rockefeller’s naive faith that there was any chance in Hades that Obamacare’s implementation could ever be “done right” touching and quaint? He helped create it; surely someone can figure out how to make it work!

Why, I bet he believes in the tooth fairy, too.

Memo to those who voted for Obama in 2008 and, especially, 2012: We tried to warn you!

Next time, listen.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Another employer drops health insurance thanks to Obamacare

And do I blame them? No. They’re being economically rational. Democrats created this mess, let them take the credit:

Universal Orlando plans to stop offering medical insurance to part-time employees beginning next year, a move the resort says has been forced by the federal government’s health-care overhaul.

The giant theme-park resort, which generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue, began informing employees this month that it will offer health-insurance to part-timers “only until December 31, 2013.”

The reason: Universal currently offers part-time workers a limited insurance plan that has low premiums but also caps the payout of benefits. For instance, Universal’s plan costs about $18 a week for employee-only coverage but covers only a maximum of $5,000 a year toward hospital stays. There are similar caps for other services.

Those types of insurance plans — sometimes referred to as “mini-med” plans — will no longer be permitted under the federal Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2014, the law will prohibit insurance plans that impose annual monetary limits on essential medical care such, as hospitalization, or on overall spending.

Universal is one of the largest employers in Central Florida, with approximately 17,000 employees. It has thousands of part-time workers, though Universal said only about 500 of them are enrolled in the current insurance plan, as many part-timers are covered by a parent’s or spouse’s insurance.

So, that’s “only” 500 people who lose their health plans (that may well have met their needs just fine), thanks to the PPACA and the Democrats. Still, what was it someone was saying about liking your health plan…. Oh, yeah! Now I remember!

Too bad he didn’t have time to visit Universal and explain how wonderful this was to these people, while he was down there golfing with Tiger Woods…

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

More #Obamacare job losses. This thing needs to be killed.

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

And the good news (1) keep rolling in:

Hospital layoffs and the Affordable Heath Care Act

The Affordable Care Act is designed to make health care easier to get, but now, one local hospital says Affordable Health Care is the reason it is laying people off.

Clifton Springs Hospital let almost 60 non-clinical employees go last Friday. Hospital officials says it’s all because they’re trying to get ready for the impact of the new health care act. The act changes the way health insurance is run and the way hospitals are paid.

The Affordable Care Act means many of you will be making more decisions when it comes to your own health care. Health care workers say co-pays and deductibles will be higher, that means things like x-rays and MRI’s will cost you  more. So people will be forced to decide if they really want them. That might mean fewer people in the hospital.

Clifton Springs Hospital is preparing for that now. Last Friday, Clifton Springs Hospital laid off 58-full time employees. The reason is to get ready for the Affordable Care Act that will unfold over the next four years.

Lewis Zulick, Interim CEO of Clifton Springs Hospital, said, “That was something that we realized, especially over the last 6 months or so, that we had to do something to really match up our revenue to our expenses. That really had to do with the kind of volume we were experiencing at the hospital.”

In other words, from reading the article, it’s due to Obamacare’s refusal to allow insurance companies to pay for certain procedures, pushing that cost off on the consumer. It’s not a decision the doctor and patient make together (“Do I need this?”), but one forced on the consumer by government regulation — and that written by supposed “experts,” bureaucrats who know nothing about individual patients and their needs. The hospital anticipates fewer people opting for such procedures, thus leading them to make the logical business decision to lay people off.

Ergo, Obamacare costs jobs.

One can argue, of course, that some at least of these were unnecessary procedures that drove up insurance costs, and I wouldn’t disagree with you. That’s what’s been called “defensive medicine,” in which doctors will order “just one more test” not so much out of medical need, but to avoid being sued in our litigation-plagued society. Conservative reformers have long complained of needless malpractice suits that drive up costs for everyone.

But the solution is tort reform, dealing with the abuse of the legal systems, not top-down command-and-control rationing and regulation of the insurance and medical industries. (Ironically, uber-progressive California was the first state to introduce major malpractice reform. In 1975, under Jerry Brown!) And certainly government should never come between a doctor and patient in deciding treatment.

Meanwhile…

A global medical technology company has laid off nearly 100 employees at its offices in Tennessee and Massachusetts and is blaming the layoffs on the medical device tax tied to ObamaCare.

London-based Smith & Nephew said Thursday it laid off fewer than 100 employees between the two offices, which operate as the company’s advanced surgical devices unit, according to The Commercial Appeal.

The company specializes in developing orthopedic reconstruction products, has nearly 11,000 employees and operates in over 90 countries, according to its website.

The Affordable Care Act includes a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, which is expected to raise nearly $30 billion over the next decade. The tax is applied to gross sales revenues.

A tax is a cost of doing business. When you raise costs, the company has three choices: it can eat the lost profits, harming the owners — perhaps a small businessman and his family, or shareholders, which may include employees and pension funds; it can pass the higher cost on to the consumer, running the risk of pricing themselves out of the market; or, they can cut other costs to balance things out. Materials are one cost, but using cheaper materials is one sure way for a medical company to be sued out of business.

But, guess what? Labor is a cost, too!

And so, thanks to the medical device tax in Obamacare, nearly 100 (more) people have lost their jobs.

Eventually, the problems are going to accumulate and annoy and outright harm enough people that they will demand something be done. Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans will want to just tinker with it, promising “fixes.”

But there is no way fix the problems with Obamacare, because Obamacare is the problem. From its most basic concepts to its details, it is one huge, honking, accelerating disaster. However long it takes, it must be repealed, destroyed root and branch. Do to it what Rome did to Carthage.

Sigh. We had our chance in 2012 to take the monster out before he did too much damage. But, we blew it then, and people are suffering for it.

And so we fight on.

via Brian Faughnan and ST.

RELATED: Stephen Green on “How to ruin healthcare in just 2000 easy pages!”  Meanwhile, the cheapest plan for a family of five under Obamacare will cost up to $20,000 per year, per the IRS. That’s almost half the median family income in the US. What was that about “affordable, again?”

Footnote:
(1) For Orwellian definitions of “good,” that is.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Obamacare guts the pay of yet more of its strongest supporters

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

We’ve seen this before: state and community colleges cutting the hours of its part-time faculty to avoid the increased financial burdens of Obamacare. Well, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here we go again:

In Ohio, instructor Robert Balla faces a new cap on the number of hours he can teach at Stark State College. In a Dec. 6 letter, the North Canton school told him that “in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act… employees with part-time or adjunct status will not be assigned more than an average of 29 hours per week.”

Mr. Balla, a 41-year-old father of two, had taught seven English composition classes last semester, split between Stark State and two other area schools. This semester, his course load at Stark State is down to one instead of two as a result of the school’s new limit on hours, cutting his salary by about a total of $2,000.

Stark State’s move came as a blow to Mr. Balla, who said he earns about $40,000 a year and cannot afford health insurance.

“I think it goes against the spirit of the [health-care] law,” Mr. Balla said. “In education, we’re working for the public good, we are public employees at a public institution; we should be the first ones to uphold the law, to set the example.”

Cry me a river, Robert. Stark State is upholding the law — to the letter. Obamacare, which you evidently support, redefined full-time as as average of 30 or more hours per week and, with the expansion in required coverage, greatly increased the college’s financial burden. It’s not their fault that progressive, statist Democrats, in their rush to ram an unpopular, unwanted bill down the throats of Americans, created perverse incentives that your employers found irresistible. You had your chance to reverse this last November, but, I’m willing to bet, you chose Hope and Change, instead.

You got what you voted for, dude.

Be sure to read the rest of WR Mead’s article for a good discussion of the exploitation of part-time academics in higher education. I’ve done the grad school gig myself, and what he describes is all too common. For being towers of liberal sanctimony, universities and colleges are some of the worst exploiters of labor.

via Bryan Preston, whom I quote: “Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.”

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Hospital stops infant deliveries, citing Obamacare

Wait, wasn’t the PPACA supposed to lower medical costs? Why yes, yes it was:

Congress and the President have enacted a historic health care reform law that will help ensure that all families are able to get the care they need, as well as financial security and relief from rising premiums. The legislation is a significant first step toward bending the health care cost curve for the federal government and families, and it will yield real economic benefits.

Apparently, one Pennsylvania hospital didn’t get the memo, citing rising costs due to Obamacare as the reason to stop delivering babies:

A southwestern Pennsylvania hospital will stop delivering babies after March 31 because its obstetricians are either leaving or refocusing their practices, and because hospital officials believe they can’t afford it based on projected reimbursements under looming federal health care reforms.

Two are leaving obstetrics altogether, it seems, while two others are focusing more on gynecology. No word on how much further mothers ready to deliver will have to travel, or what this will do to the load on other hospitals.

Expect it to get much worse, much more annoying as the years go on, folks.

Elections, consequences, and all that.

via Liberty Unyielding

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

To no one’s surprise except Obama voters, another business cuts employee hours to pay for Obamacare

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

This time it’s a Wendy’s franchise in Omaha:

A fast-food chain is slashing employee hours so franchise owners don’t have to pay health benefits. Around 100 local Wendy’s workers have learned their hours are being cut. A spokesperson says a new health care law is to blame.

“Thirty-six to 37 hours a week.” That’s how many hours T.J. Growbeck works at the 84th and Giles Wendy’s restaurant. The money he earns helps him pay for the basics, but that’s not the case for all his co-workers. “There are some people doing it trying to get by.”

The company has announced that all non-management positions will have their hours reduced to 28 a week. Gary Burdette, Vice President of Operations for the local franchise, says the cuts are coming because the new Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to offer health insurance to employees working 32-38 hours a week. Under the current law they are not considered full time and that as a small business owner, he can’t afford to stay in operation and pay for everyone’s health insurance.

I won’t even bother to say something snarky about affected workers who may have voted for Obama (though, being Nebraska, I suspect there were few). I’ll just refer you to other posts under “Elections Have Consequences.”

But, once again, we see economically illiterate people (h/t Jim Hoft) hooting like monkeys at a business for responding rationally to changes in their costs to do business. Say it after me: “Health care is a cost, it is never free.”

If you make a business pay more to conduct business, as ObamaCare does, it has to recoup those costs somehow, or go out of business. (And yes, Lefties, not making profit to the owner’s satisfaction is a legitimate reason to go out of business. He’s not running a charity.) It can pass the cost on to the customer, or it can cut costs. One way to do so is to cut staff hours to avoid the ridiculously low definition of “full-time” written into ObamaCare.

As far as I’m concerned, this businessman did exactly the right thing in light of the burdens laid on him by progressive statists in D.C. And you can bet you’re going to see a lot more of this as the effects of ObamaCare spread.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Obama tweets 'a promise kept — to make our tax system fairer'; Citizens say 'you lie'

Reblogged from Twitchy:

Oh, my. That was tweeted unironically by President Obama's Twitter account. Nearly the same thing was also tweeted last night.

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/288088560425390080

Like President Obama himself, those running his Twitter feed seem to be under the impression that if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes true. Well, citizens are here to put the kibosh on that shameful theory.

https://twitter.com/MisfitPolitics/status/288120351098040321…

Read more… 690 more words

Maybe the dissonance between the shrunken paychecks and Obama's insults to our intelligence will finally get through to his adoring followe.... Nah. What was I thinking?

Crushed unicorn dreams: 'Why is my paycheck less' turns to Obama vote regrets; 'I should have voted Romney'

Reblogged from Twitchy:

Oh, dear. The harsh reality of crushed unicorn dreams and the bitter smell of regret. As Twitchy reported, Americans started noticing that Obama's "fair share" claims weren't so fair and many were shocked ... shocked ... that their first paychecks of the year were smaller.

The indebted young Twitter user above now says she was just being sarcastic, but plenty of Obama supporters facing smaller paychecks continue to show genuine disenchantment.

Read more… 733 more words

I should have sympathy, but "I told ya so!" is so much more satisfying.

Hope and less change: Americans cringe at first paychecks of 2013; Stunned lib asks, 'What happened?'

Reblogged from Twitchy:

Happy New Year and happy payday! Thank goodness our "lord and savior" Obama signed the fiscal cliff bill into law after proudly proclaiming, "Under this law, more than 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses will not see their income taxes go up."

Promises, promises.

While PolitiFact will likely rate Obama's statement "Mostly Swoon," around 70 percent of Americans are going to pay more taxes in 2013…

Read more… 1,269 more words

Your host saw this same phenomenon at The Day Job: person after person who voted for Obama and the Democrats upset that they were taxed more... just as Obama and the Democrats promised, if you were paying attention. Trouble is, they weren't. God love the low-information voter.

Cabela's cash register 'glitch' shines spotlight on new medical device excise tax

Reblogged from Twitchy:

• 

Remember how we were all assured that we'd love Obamacare once we found out what was in it? People are already noticing shrinking paychecks, and with 2013 only three days old, people are already turning to Snopes.com — a site dedicated to debunking urban legends — to make sense of the country's new Medical Excise Tax.

https://twitter.com/ShannaGSC/status/286548716381421568

What now? We thought that only "the rich" were going to be paying more in taxes.

Read more… 625 more words

I think retailers and service businesses should add a line item for every new tax ObamaCare costs them. Make it plain to the public where the pain comes from.

Obamacare: the regulations avalanche begins

And this is just the start.

People are going to hate this, but, hey, it’s what they voted for:

It took the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 159 pages to explain one new Obamacare tax on investments that will be used to pay for Obamacare.

Only individuals and families making more than $200,000 and $250,000, respectively, will be impacted by the tax, which “applies to a broad range of investment securities ranging from stocks and bonds to commodity securities and specialized derivatives.”

One new tax = 159 pages of rules, sections and subsections. You can bet your accountant is going to have to raise his rates.

But, don’t worry, these new rules and Byzantine regs only apply to those evil “rich” (1) who make more than a couple of hundred grand in combined salary and investments. That is, it will until the government admits what they knew all along, that it won’t raise enough money, that it never would raise enough money, and that they’ll –regrettably, of course, and in the name of fairness–  have to include more of the well-off. Let’s say, those who make more than $150k. Then $100K. Then…?

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch once famously said, “The people have spoken, and they must be punished.”

Well, bend over, Obama voters, because here it comes. Shame of it is, we all have to suffer with you idiots.

More in the “Elections Have Consequences” department:

• Walmart is ending insurance coverage for new hires. Well, why shouldn’t they? It’s probably cheaper for the company to pay the fines and let people get their (taxpayer subsidized) insurance on the exchanges. Which, of course, has been the Left’s plan all along, as the goal is the ending of private medical insurance and the creation of a single-payer system.
• Cheesecake Factory CEO warns he may have to raise prices due to Obamacare. Well, duh! Insurance is a cost that has to be accounted for, or avoided. I hope the company has the guts to make this added expense clear on the check.

And you can bet there’s more on the way.

Footnote:
(1) You know. Those nasty, awful, EVIL people who run small businesses and create jobs.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

PA college to cut hours to avoid Obamacare

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you:

Pennsylvania’s Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare.

“It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.

On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will be cut back to 25 hours. The move will save an estimated $6 million.

I don’t know how Professor Davis voted, but I’m sure some at least of his affected colleagues voted to reelect Obama and a senator who voted for Obamacare.  Maybe they should have thought more (or at all) about the perverse incentives built into the bill.

‘Cause, y’know, elections have consequences.

PS: The article continues with a representative of the Steelworker’s Union saying the answer to these cuts is to… Wait for it… organize!! Economic reality shall bow before the power of the Almighty Strike!

After all, that did the Baker’s Union so much good with Hostess.

PPS: Yes, this is news from before the holiday. I’m catching up on some interesting stuff.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Restaurant to charge surcharge to pay for Obamacare

Obamacare economist in action

It’s the iron logic of economics, really: either you recoup your costs and make a sufficient profit to justify staying in business, or you go out of business. In this case, not only is the owner of several Denny’s restaurants cutting employee hours to balance the cost, he’s also adding an explicit Obamacare surcharge to each check:

Florida based restaurant boss John Metz, who runs approximately 40 Denny’s and owns the Hurricane Grill & Wings franchise has decided to offset that by adding a five percent surcharge to customers’ bills and will reduce his employees’ hours.

With Obamacare due to be fully implemented in January 2014, Metz has justified his move by claiming it is ‘the only alternative. I’ve got to pass on the cost to the customer.’

The fast-food business owner is set to hold meetings at his restaurants in December where he will tell employees, ‘that because of Obamacare, we are going to be cutting front-of-the-house employees to under 30 hours, effective immediately.’

Obamacare requires employers with 50 or more workers to offer a state-approved (and more expensive) health plan or face fines of $2,000 per uncovered full-time employee. For operations run on typically thin margins, like restaurants, and with a bad economy already making things tough, the options offered are potentially crippling or even fatal to a business. Thus Obamacare creates a perverse incentive to contain costs by cutting hours, which hurts employees, and raising prices, which hurts the consumer.

(And, I don’t know about your area, but a lot of Denny’s customers I see are on fixed incomes. As anyone who understands basic economics (1) knows, businesses usually deal with increased costs by passing them on to the customer. Ergo, Obamacare harms people on fixed incomes.)

Metz recognizes he may lose a fair amount of business by making the Obamacare surcharge explicit, but I say “Good for him” and I hope other service industries make that same decision. Why shouldn’t people know just what goes into their bill, aside from the cost of the meal, itself? We break out sales tax, don’t we? And there’s a separate line for tips, so why not one for our glorious new “free” health care plan?

Maybe, if there’s enough pain and it’s made clear where it comes from, voters will be motivated to do something about it in 2014 and 2016.

And maybe they’ll finally realize that elections have consequences.

via Pirate’s Cove, which has more.

Footnote:
(1) This of course excludes leftists, Democratic members of Congress, the President, and the average Obama voter.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

Obama donor lays off employees because of ObamaCare

“But at least we won the election! Obama!!”

Nancy Pelosi said we’d have to pass the health-care reform bill in order to find out what’s in it.

Surprise!

Stryker Corporation has announced that it will close its facility in Orchard Park, New York, eliminating 96 jobs next month. It will also counter the medical device tax in Obamacare by eliminating 5% of their global workforce, an estimated 1,170 positions.

Jon Stryker is heir to the Stryker Corporation, one of the largest medical device and equipment manufacturers in the world. Stryker’s grandfather was the surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed. The company now sells $8.3 billion worth of hospital beds, artificial joints, medical cameras, and medical software every year.

Stryker, a member of the Forbes 400 list, was one of the top five donors to the Obama campaign. Having donated $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC, Stryker also gave $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the Democrat Party.

(…)

Stryker’s corporation is part of an industry that has been a big loser at the hands of Obamacare. Having refused to get on board with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee when the law was being crafted in 2009, the medical device industry was punished with an excise tax of 2.3% of their revenues, regardless of whether they make a profit.

My sympathies to anyone losing their job at Stryker, or elsewhere. Except to those who voted for Obama. All I can say to them is this is what you voted for.

Elections have consequences.

(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)

New blog category: “Elections have consequences,” and more ObamaCare layoffs

I’ll not hide my feelings: I think the United States made a terrible mistake reelecting Barack Obama and letting the Democrats retain the Senate, and California accelerated its long swirl down the economic drain by approving Proposition 30 and giving the Democrats two-thirds control of the legislature. The problems people want fixed –a sclerotic economy, unemployment, national and state debt, foreign threats– aren’t going to be fixed under the Left’s policies. In fact, things will more likely get worse before they ever get better, and these developments will stem from the choice Americans and Californians made last November 6th.

In fact, it’s already started.

And because I believe in holding people accountable for their actions, I’ve created a new category, “Elections Have Consequences,” to record those developments I think stem from the voters’ bad choices.

Here’s the latest: because ObamaCare and all the increased costs it imposes on business is the law for at least the next four years, Papa John’s Pizza is reducing employees’ hours:

John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John’s Pizza announced he will likely be forced to cut back workers’ hours because of the cost to businesses of the federal government’s takeover of our healthcare system.

Provisions of Obamacare state that employees that work 30 hours a week or more will be automatically considered full-time and must be included in their company’s healthcare insurance program. Currently, the eligibility threshold for health insurance is a 40-hour work week, so adding those who work 30 hours a week will cost businesses exponentially more. The higher cost associated with this change is forcing many businesses, especially those in the food service industry, to consider limiting workers to less than 30 hours a week.

In essence, implementation of Obamacare will cut the weekly take home pay of millions of low-wage workers by forcing companies to cut their hours.

This is part of a growing trend by companies toward part-time employment to control costs imposed by the government.

My blog-buddy Sister Toldjah has a post up on the laughable reaction of lefties to this news, calling for these “evil” companies to be punished with boycotts, etc., for daring to cut costs. This serves as yet more proof of my theory that, to be a good a progressive, you have to surrender all knowledge of even basic economics.

I mean, what do they expect? It’s in the nature of any organism, whether an individual or a corporation, to do what is necessary to avoid pain. If something is too hot, you move away from it. If costs are too much, you do what you can to reduce them — and ObamaCare has a built-in incentive to cut employee hours.

Schnatter isn’t evil for his decision. Quite the contrary, he’s doing the right thing to preserve his business before it’s taken down by unsustainable costs. Better that people have 29-hour jobs than none, right? Of course, living on those 29 hours will be tough, but, well, that’s what people voted for, even if they didn’t know it or refused to believe it.

Elections have consequences.

RELATED: William Teach at Pirate’s Cove has a post on even more layoffs possibly related to ObamaCare or the ObamaEconomy in general.

Welcome to Obama’s America, and here’s your layoff as your prize!

“But at least we won the election! Yay, Obama!!”

We tried to warn people that the costs laid on business by ObamaCare and other burdensome regulations and taxes meant to make things “fairer” would only lead to lots of people losing their jobs. But, did they listen? No. Not nearly enough did. And now… it’s on!

Don’t believe me? Check this, too.

Really, what were you people thinking?