$1.6B Gone From American Corporations

Less than a week after Health Care was signed into law by President Obama, we see a real and immediate impact. The impact is one that has Democrats scratching their heads and virtually demanding corporations to hand over internal documents. An impact that was not covered by the CBO analysis nor was ever mentioned by Main stream media. What is it? The cost of this bill to non-government entities i.e. you, me, and the corporations we work for.

The bill closes a “loop hole” that allows corporations to deduct the cost they pay to provide certain prescription drug benefits. No matter what you call it, at the end of the day it helped companies provide better benefits. Calling the deduction a loop hole does not negate that fact.

To clearly understand the impact better, when a company has more expense, less revenue, and has to hold shareholder value what things does a company do when offset the new burden?

1. Lay workers off to make up for the new expense.
2. Increase underlying product price.
3. Scale back future expansion.
4. Eat the cost and create lower shareholder value.

Every one of these options has an impact on the middle class. So sticking it to the corporations really means sticking to the middle class. You can be assured the executive compensation won’t be effected.

So, what has the middle class been sticked with so far:

ATT – $1,000,000,000
John Deer – $150,000,000
Boeing – $150,000,000
Caterpillar – $100,000,000
Prudential – $100,000,000
3M – $90,000,000
AK Steel – $31,000,000
ITW – $22,000,000
Valero Energy – $15,000,000
Goodrich – $10,000,000
Allegheny Technologies – $5,000,000

These are just the ones reporting this quarter. $1.6B gone from the balance books overnight. This is only one provision in the 2,000+ page bill, just wait to the other taxes and adjustments kick in.

It is one thing to know these costs are coming and fairly asses them, but the Health Care bill was sold as budget decreasing legislation with no impact on the middle class. One clause already disproves the claims. Also remember, these are corporations that pay high priced analysts to evaluate legislation, you the tax payer does not have the same benefit. Before backing legislation because “it sounds like the right thing to do” it is important to fully understand the impact and not dismiss views from either side based on political preference.

The things that people really want like pre-existing coverage, catastrophic coverage, and affordable options could be accomplished in less then 100 pages with clarity and measurable impacts. I don’t care what the news and legislators say, very few groups or people can analyze 2,000 pages of code and language and truthfully tell you what it all does and who it impacts. Something that changes every persons life should not be passed with “to really know what is in the bill we have to pass it” attitude (thank you for your most intelligent words Nancy Pelosi).