While the White House is celebrating 7.5% unemployment, it’s important to keep in mind that Obamacare will be stunting economic growth, especially for small businesses, for years to come. From the Free Enterprise blog:
Yesterday, human resources firm ADP released its monthly job numbers. Its tepid April estimate of 119,000 new jobs with 50,000 coming from small businesses sparked Moody’s economist Mark Zandi to say on CNBC, “The data seems to be suggesting healthcare is having an impact” on small businesses’ ability to hire. This reinforces the finding in the latest U.S. Chamber Small Business Outlook Survey that 71% of small businesses say the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) makes it harder to hire people.
The health care law is so flawed that a “permission structure,” to borrow a phrase from the President, will never come about because of overwhelming frustration with the law, its chaotic implementation, its inability to make health care more affordable, and the billions in new taxes to pay for it.
Frustration has set in for many small businesses many of whom are wondering how the law will work and how it will affect them. Ken Conrad of Libby Hill Seafood Restaurants in North Carolina, told members of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, “We have spent a large amount of time trying to understand the law and what we must do to comply, but still do not know the answers to many questions.”
To help small business navigate the Obamacare minefield:
The U.S. Chamber has some tools to help small businesses better understand the health care law, determine if a business has to offer health care coverage, and calculate how much the employer mandate could cost.
Also, American Commitment points to a recent article at ABC News that reports that only 35% of Americans support the health care law and that 42% don’t even know that it’s on the books.
Sure, 7.5% seems like an improvement, if we can keep it…