Fiscal Cliff Divers (or, We’re being held hostage by a bunch of childish morons)
December 10, 2012

 
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We need to ID the people behind our elections, not the votersIt’s not that I hate being broke. In fact, I kind of enjoy many of the freedoms that come with not being a wage-slave. My needs are few, and I don’t live on Credit beyond my means. If I can’t afford something, I don’t buy it. Period. Not that I’m not smart enough to be rich. Because in recent days we’ve seen that it doesn’t appear to require a whole lot of brain-power to run a multimillion dollar corporation (actually, as we just saw in this last election, it’s quite easy to become filthy rich if you’re willing to be a soulless bastard with no qualms about profiting off other people’s misery, then think you can absolve yourself by donating generously to your filthy-rich church… which often turns around and uses that money to commit more acts of evil.) And such has been the case in recent months, with Conservative CEO’s of the eateries “Applebees” and “Papa John’s Pizza” threatening to cut Full-time workers down to Part-time because of “ObamaCare”. DailyKOS provided a decent explanation yesterday as to just why their fears are unfounded, but my qualms with these people aren’t just that they are “misinformed”. They’re downright stupid. Like any other Republican, they believe the Party-line because it plays into their own Right-wing beliefs, and if they bothered to so much as actually think their plans through, they might realize that not only are they terrified over nothing, but their reaction might actually cost them MORE money than they think they might lose. Let me explain…

John Schnatter, Founder of “Papa John’s” publicly stated before the election that if ObamaCare forces him to provide health insurance to all his employees, he’d have to “increase the price of pizza” to make up for his loses (and losing business because of it, resulting in the firing of workers). But pressed for an actual dollar figure, we weren’t talking about a large pizza going from $16 to $22, or even $17. No, by Schnatter’s OWN calculations, providing his employees with health insurance would add a paltry 10-14 cents per pizza. And when “Managed Care Matters” looked into it, they found even that paltry figure to be 2-3 times too high, calculating that it would only add a trivial 3.4 to 4.6 cents per pizza (or in more dramatic terms, a 0.4 to 0.7 percent increase in “Papa’s John’s” overall expenses.)

William Black, owner of some 40 Applebee’s franchises made similar claims, saying that if President Obama were reelected and ObamaCare were not repealed, he will need to fire workers, cut existing workers to part-time (so that they don’t qualify for coverage), and cancel plans to open new restaurants. “Olive Garden” and “Darden Restaurants” made similar claims.

For the sake of argument, let’s say there’s no wide-scale public backlash (there actually has been some [ibid last link], forcing Schnatter and Darden to walk back their statements) and these restaurants cut their employees hours to just 29 hours a week, but the number of customers walking through their doors stays the same. Now what? They are going to have to hire more part-time employees to fill those vacant hours (assuming they can find enough people willing to work part-time, rotation schedules with no benefits). Now you’ve increased your workforce by 25% so your salary obligations are the same as before (sans the paltry cost of health care). Success? Not so fast. First off, you don’t instantly find enough employees to replenish your workforce overnight. You’re going to have to keep those employees on full-time until you find someone to take over their slot (and pray another 50% of your workforce doesn’t up & quit after you’ve cut their hours). Then, as with all new employees, you’ve got to train them, which requires time and still more money. And if you’ve ever been served by a trainee, you know how frustrating it can be. Now you are losing customers, fed up with all the low-skill trainees they have to deal with. ObamaCare doesn’t take full effect for another year, so for the next 12 months, you’ve got unmotivated trainees coming to work sick because… let’s face it, if they are working part-time for minimum-wage, they can’t afford to take a day off. Nothing better than having sick employees handling your food. One good lawsuit, and that 4 cents per pizza you thought you were saving could end up costing you millions.

I‘ve mentioned here before, that I used to be a Republican until the dawn of the Internet and I was able to check out the things I was being told, and amazingly, nothing ever seemed to pan out. “Tax cuts on businesses do NOT create jobs” and the Clinton tax increase did NOT wreck the economy.

I recently noticed these are the same insane people dictating our policy that believe THEY could have taken down “the Batman shooter” in that Colorado movie theater last Summer armed with just their trusty handgun, THEY could of saved all those people… in a darkened theater, filling with teargas, people screaming, children crying, people running all over the place while a madman wearing body armor with the element of surprise on his side, fired his semi-automatic rifle into the crowd. THEY KNOW they would have had the presence of mind to calmly take the guy down without hitting any innocent bystanders or getting killed themselves, mistaken for an accomplice by the police or another armed idiot in the theater who only sees a muzzle-flash and decides to shoot in that direction.

Just who are these people? They’re…

…the “female body has a way to shut down rapists sperm” crowd.

…the “snow in January means Global Warming isn’t real” crowd.

…the “evolution is a lie straight from the pit of Hell” crowd.

…the tri-corner hat wearing “FEMA Camps” & “Death Panels” Tea Party crowd.

…the “Obama is a secret Muslim that attended Reverend Wright’s Christian church for 20 years” crowd.

…the “black people just want free stuff” crowd. The “lets put poor school kids to work as janitors” crowd.

…the “Michelle Obama’s fist bump might be a terrorist fist-jab” crowd.

…the “George Bush deserves more credit for getting bin Laden than Obama does” crowd.

THESE are the people dictating policy to the rest of us.

People like Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) that thinks nothing of using the “Debt Ceiling as leverage” to force President Obama to negotiate with the GOP. “Leverage”. Think about that for a moment, using the full faith & credit of the United States as a bargaining chip. If that doesn’t scare the Hell out of you, either you don’t understand its significance or you’ve got your own private island in the Galapagos. The last time the GOP did this, our credit rating was cut and it added several Billion to our Deficit (because we now had to pay higher interest rates to convince people to lend us money with a greater risk of not being paid back.)

When the GOP played chicken with the Debt Ceiling in 2011, talk circulated of President Obama possibly invoking the 14th Amendment and bypassing Congress altogether. Thank your lucky stars we held onto the Senate, because if the GOP controlled both Houses and tried that again, I can assure you President Obama would use that authority and it would be 1998 all over again as the GOP unquestionably would attempt to impeach President Obama for circumventing them. The Insane Clown Posse that is the GOP has no problem going to the absolute extremes with the slightest provocation. These were the children that threatened to tell Mom that you “stole all their Halloween candy” and threw a tantrum until you apologized and gave them half your candy when all you did was swap one gumdrop for a Raisinette.

We’re all being held hostage by a bunch of childish morons.
 


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December 10, 2012 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Economy, Election, Healthcare, Jobs, Money, Politics, Taxes

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