Their Dream came true. ObamaCare became the LawOfTheLand one bright Sunday afternoon. Next day, a number of large corporations, the ones who create jobs and wealth, also complied with other federal law, and restated their projected earnings in light of ObamaCare. It was pretty distressing. Caterpillar projected a $100 million dollar hit, and firms like ATT projected dings of up to a billion dollars.
So Waxman and Stupak then went into Chicago Mode. It goes like this: Guys in suits walk into the place of business, and say, 'Dis here's a nice little business you got going here! It would be a crying SHAME (wouldn't it, Vito) if someone were to show up one night and BURN IT TO THE GROUND!! What you're gonna need to do is get yourself some fire insurance (right, Vito?). Yeah, fire insurance. Vito here, he'll be by to collect premiums every Friday afternoon. He don't like no late payments on premiums. Neither do I. It makes me UPSET!'
Well, Waxman and Stupak weren't quite that blatant, but they did send letters around to a lot of execs at a lot of firms, like the one they sent to the President of Verizon. The language was almost as charming as Gino and Vito back in the 'hood:
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on April 21, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building to examine the impact of the new law on Verizon and other large employers. We request your personal testimony at this hearing.
To assist the Committee with its preparation for the hearing, we request that you provide the following documents from January 1,2009, through the present: (1) any analyses related to the projected impact of health care reform on Verizon; and (2) any documents, including e-mail messages, sent to or prepared or reviewed by senior company officials related to the projected impact of health care reform on Verizon. We also request an explanation of the accounting methods used by Verizon since 2003 to estimate the financial impact on your company of the 28% subsidy for retiree drug coverage and its deductibility or nondeductibility, including the accounting methods used in preparing the cost impact released by Verizon this week.
We ask that you provide the requested information by April 9, 2010. For purposes of this request, the term "senior company officials" includes all company officials at the level of Vice President and above for the company or any subsidiary. Attachments to this letter provide additional information about responding to Committee document requests and testifying before the Committee.
Youse guys need some FIRE INSURANCE, so you better 'SPLAIN YOURSELF!
Well, as the date approached, it dawned on our two intrepid Congressmen: What if the lawyers and accountants all showed up and made presentations that would enter the Congressional record that ObamaCare was a financial nightmare for business?
Word came down today that hearings were cancelled. Nothing rescheduled.
They'll be extorting some other way to be sure, just don't want to be caught doing it in the light of day.
That's not The Chicago Way.
1 comment:
O, shucks. I was really hoping that they would go through with it and get caught making utter fools of themselves. Evidently they caught themselves making utter fools of themselves, but that is not near as much fun ... ignorant nitwits!!
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