From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…
“This is about doing due diligence on behalf of small businesses and families that I represent in the 8th District,” -Rep. Melissa Bean, on her vote for Obamacare, March 23, ABC Link
Perhaps as part of her “due diligence”, Rep. Bean should have considered talking to actual small business owners in the district or small business trade associations like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
If she had, she might have found out their actual view, summed up by NFIB’s Senior VP Susan Eckerly who told Fox News, “This isn’t a health care bill, this is a tax bill wrapped up in health care paper.” Link
NFIB officials were quick to point out that businesses with 20-200 employees are the most likely to see significant increases in Medicare payroll taxes. Those tax increases will not be bridged by fleeting tax credits included in the bill because most of these small businesses won’t qualify, according to the NFIB.
Or, had Rep. Bean consulted with the non-partisan National Small Business Association, she might have learned of their view that the federal takeover of health care will, “place significant new pressures on small businesses to both offer and pay for employee health insurance…We justifiably expect that small companies caught between these twin pressures will see their ability to grow, prosper, and create jobs greatly diminished.” Link
And it’s not just small businesses in the cross-hairs. Major Illinois employers like Caterpillar and John Deere-companies supplied by small manufacturers in and around the 8th district-are projecting their insurance costs to increase by hundreds of millions of dollars. Artificially increasing the cost of labor for these companies, as the health care bill does, will result in layoffs. The Illinois Policy Institute projected Illinois would lose 169,000 jobs with the passage of Obamacare-this against the backdrop of a state nearing 12% unemployment.
This is Economics 101. The Obamacare legislation is neither small business-friendly nor family-friendly. Its impacts will hamper the creation of economic opportunities at a time when the 8th district desperately needs growth.
The bottom line: Rep. Melissa Bean’s vote in favor of this job-killing federal takeover of one-sixth of our nation’s economy will destroy small businesses and stifle entrepreneurship.
Small Businesses deserve better. They can’t afford Obamacare and we can’t afford Melissa Bean in Congress.
Joe Walsh is the Republican candidate running against Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean in 2010 for the Illinois 8th Congressional District. Born and raised in North Barrington, a policy advocate, teacher, and business entrepreneur, Joe has spent his adult life advancing limited-government and conservative principles. For more information on Joe Walsh and his campaign visit: www.joewalshforcongress.com