Health Taxes — For a Slimmer, Trimmer Wallet
Congress and the Obama administration seem to have failed to include small details in the health care bill — such as forgetting to make sure it could keep evil insurance companies from denying coverage for kids with preexisting conditions.
Congress and the president were so distracted by the real purpose of the bill that they forgot to include the stated purpose of the bill in the actual bill (next to the promise of all that money and power, their distractions were understandable — it was like standing Bill Clinton next to a bikini-clad Jessica Simpson and later asking him if he remembers what color her shoes were).
But there’s one thing Congress and the president didn’t forget to put in the Obamacare bill: The taxes and surcharges under the guise of caring about our weight:
One of the provisions in the new health care law requires small businesses to provide coverage for workers. Such an “employer mandate” has been in place in San Francisco, Calif., for over a year. The mandate has earned mixed reviews at best.
Under the law, businesses with 20 or more employees are required to provide medical coverage, either on their own or by paying into a city-run program. That’s what most restaurants are doing — albeit grudgingly.
To cover the cost, owners are either having to raise their menu prices or tack on a so-called “Healthy Surcharge” onto the tab. At some places, it’s around 4 percent of the check. Others charge a flat fee of a dollar or two.
The only real medical condition Obamacare might cure is slipped disks, because our backs will be spared the strain of lugging any money around.
But fortunately San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is there to remind us that spending more money in the long run will save money, uh, in the long run (?):
Some eateries worry they’ll have to let people go, or cut shifts. But Mayor Gavin Newsom gives a different view. A former restaurant owner himself, who lobbied hard for this universal health care program, Newsom argues it’s saving restaurants and taxpayers money, by offering workers preventative care. Newsom argues that this in turn keeps them out of emergency rooms, and on the clock.
Unless the doctor is working right there in the restaurant, instead of being in an emergency room, said employee will be rotting in line at their Obamacare-designated doctor’s office/muffler shop, so where’s the benefit to the restaurant, its customers, or the taxpayers in general? Besides, I’ve been in emergency rooms before, and I hadn’t noticed that they were continually filled with sous chefs, waitresses and busboys, but maybe I’m just not very observant.
It’s strange that many of the people who will be paying the most fat taxes are some of the ones who support Obamacare the most. Conversely, it should baffle Americans even more that politicians (and their wives) who start campaigns like “Let’s Move” spend most of their waking hours and all of future generations’ money to craft schemes that encourage people to do nothing more than lay on the couch all day. People who have to go get things tend to be in better shape than people who have everything brought to them — the science is settled on that. Ah, but this is assuming this all has anything to do with physical health.
We can’t say we weren’t warned:
“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” — Michelle Obama, April 8, 2008
People would probably be able to lose weight easier if she’d stop talking about pie so damn much.
And we’ll let Mayor Newsom play us off with a Frisco coup de grâce about Obamacare — feel free to make your own joke:
“Businesses get the benefit in the back end,” Newsom says.
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Obama Chief of Staff: No More Compromise on Contraceptive Mandate
February 12, 2012 04:26 PM by Doug Powers
33 Comments
Choosing Life and Beating the Odds
February 11, 2012 11:50 AM by Doug Powers
32 CommentsObama’s fraudulent abortion mandate “accommodation” Updated: Prez condemns “cynical” opposition
February 10, 2012 10:05 AM by Michelle Malkin
245 Comments‘To Stop the Multiplication of the Unfit’
February 10, 2012 09:06 AM by Michelle Malkin
183 CommentsFormer Democrat Rep. Regrets Vote for Obamacare Due to Contraceptive Coverage
February 7, 2012 03:40 PM by Doug Powers
75 Comments
How to Make a Liberal Politician Stand Up Against Intrusive Government
February 6, 2012 04:28 PM by Doug Powers
95 Comments
Your Friday IRS regulation dump: Obamacare’s job-killing medical device tax
February 3, 2012 04:21 PM by Michelle Malkin
58 Comments
The SIGA scandal: Calls for investigation mount
January 27, 2012 02:13 PM by Michelle Malkin
58 Comments
Categories: Health care
Patterico
» NYT hails the safety net: Poor hardest hitAmSpecBlog
» Weekend Political Wrap-UpThe Hill
» Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine voteJustOneMinute
» I Guess I'm Still Stuck On StupidDaily Caller
» Obama’s deputy downplays church-state controversyRiehl World View
» Whitney Houston: If I should stay I would only be in your way
I avoid CA like the plague…illegals, high taxes, etc. Makes me ashamed to have been born there….
I avoid San Francisco. You have to do a baffle clear every five minutes.
I’m sorry that so many of you are going to have to pay higher taxes. I’m in the middle-class of America and Pres. Obama promised us that we would not have to pay any new taxes!
(Doesn’t this constitute a verbal contract?)
Good luck with that.
There are two things I don’t understand about the concept that preventative care will prevent future problems and therefore cost less.
In many cases, preventative care has been shown to be more costly than just treating a disease, which is why many insurance companies don’t cover preventative care. I’m not sure how people come to the naive conclusion that it’ll automatically save money.
How extensive of an umbrella is “preventative care” in the bill? For example, will insurance companies have to pay for a expensive healthy diet??? Going traveling would reduce my stress and be preventative. Vacation anyone?
Mayor Newsom must enjoy being the butt of his own joke.
Bada bing bada bang.
An aside: Is it really true that the $200k income “limit” is not indexed for inflation?
The liberal world is defined as having winners and losers. Income redistribution is about helping the loser, since they would not have been losers if those darn winners hadn’t taken more than their fair share. The truth is that in the liberal world there are only dictators and losers. No one really wins. All are punished.
Conservatives know that the most success comes from hard work and from the win-win situations. Successful people didn’t become successful by stealing from others.
Uh, bartender, I’ll have what he’s having.
How very fitting (chuckle). Now I need a way to sell them something they don’t need for x payments of $19.95…
They did a great job of making the Restaraunt business in the Capitol work. The Senate cafeterial lost $18 million in 7 years.
There is a finite amount of money. Restaraunt income will drop, so fewer employees, so fewer jobs. REAL SMART.
In the end the poor suffer.
Oklahoma (my home of record) has passed an OPT OUT measure for Obamacare:
http://www.koco.com/politics/22923799/detail.html
saw that Hangfire…I’ll vote yes when it comes to the ballot box….
Must…not…make…inappropriate…joke…
“That’s what I said about the brothel in the basement,” Frank says.
…like the old “How do you separate the men from the boys in S.F.?”
Sign outside Family Planning clinic:
‘Use Rear Entrance’
I’d avoid this progressive plagued political cesspool of a state myself if I did’t already live here. Tell ya what tho’, I avoid visiting and spending money in ultra-lefty communities if at all possible. CA makes me disgusted to live here. What else disgusts me more are the idiot liberals who supported destructive policies moving out because they can no longer stand to live here, leaving the mess they helped create, and infecting other states with their insanity.
Retirement in 6 years and CA in my rearview mirror can’t come soon enough, that is if CA lasts that long.
What if that piece of pie is the difference between whether or not my kids go to bed on an empty stomach? If my desire to feed my kids is contrary to the wishes of The One, does that make me a racist?
Well, if that piece of pie is going to be taken away from me, then they’re welcome to have it – after I’ve loaded it up with some wormy dogcrap.
On March 24th, 2010 at 5:16 pm,
With a crowbar.
Spaceycakes, that’s just so anal!
I wonder who will get the LAST piece of that M.O. pie?
It drives me nuts when I hear the left talk about wealth distribution,they still don’t see that in order to “distribute” wealth,there must be someone creating the wealth that they want to “distribute”.
With all these jokes, I was going to say something about a rimshot… but that would probably be inappropriate.
“How do you separate the boys from the men in S.F.?
I always turn a hose on them…
Nancy says:
You can’t screw all of the people all of the time , but you sure can screw democrat congressmen all of the time!
A golfer would consider it a hole in one!
Using the word, “Frisco” to describe San Francisco? Please don’t do that. As a native from The City, it hurts my ears.
Acceptable terms:
“San Fransicko” (props to Michael Savage)
“Baghdad by the Bay” (props to Herb Caen, who even wrote a book, “Don’t call it Frisco”)
Under Obamacare it won’t be long before the doctor is interchangable with the guy who asks “you want fries with that?” Real MDs will be reserved for the lords and ladies of the elite class and some will set up shop underground or off-shore.
Q: How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?
A: His/her lips are moving.
Q: Is Barrack Hussein Obama a Lawyer?
A: Yes
Do I need say more?
I do not know swmntman so tell us:
A) Are you a Bitter Clinger?
B) Are you a Typical White Person
C) Do something odd such as WORK?
Answer Yes to any question and receive a 15% off coupon for Vaseline (buy it now before Blue Lips taxes it).
===
Shut up Bxxxx and take it like a man.
DEMS FEAR VIOLENT BACKLASH
–Drudge
and well they should
although I think they are lying.
Give NAMBLA a call, then hold your nose.
Yeah, you haven’t missed your extra helpings of pie, have ya? Just sayin’.
They are just trying to stifle dissent. They want to paint all their opponents as Timothy McVeigh and make people afraid to critisize them lest they be grouped with the crazies.
How about Sodom and Gomorrah? Munchkin Land?… Tinker Bellphia! No…
Sorry. SF is actually one of my favorite Cities. Beautiful. I love to visit – then leave.
What in the hel* is with Bolsheviks and “pie”. Is it like manna that falls from the heavens overnight and we all just go out in the morning and pick it up? These ignorant fools all view life as a zero sum game and “social justice” is simply a matter of getting in line to get your share once all the booty is collected. No wonder our world is so screwed up. The inmates are truly running the asylum.
Memo to Leftists: Karl Marx was a failed writer who couldn’t think his way out of a water closet, and your political mentors murdered millions of people based on his musings. Thanks for the legacy.
Okay, “baffle clear” @Hangfire still has me laughing. . .
For all the Libtard vermin that surf here, I have one question for you.
If this health care Sham is so great and wonderous, why did the DemoRATS in Congress create a loophole in this bill basically not requiring them to be in this same Health care system that they created for, in their words “Ordinary People”. Answer up now, give me your excuses and talking points.
Newsome is assuming that people will continue to go out to eat as often as they did prior to the sur-charge; yet somehow I think the reality will be far different than his assumption.
This is what happens when socialists take control. They care not one whit about the free market. However, they think that the spending by the people will go on as before, despite the higher costs and taxes.
They don’t comprehend the term “disposable income.” If you have less of it, you don’t spend more. The reason socialists don’t understand disposable income is because they just print more paper, and then “spend” it as though it were real.
A friend of my wife does nails and manicures for a living. She voted for Obrainless. She didn’t even bother to think about how higher taxes would affect her business. Her entire income is based on disposable income. For her, that’s a double hit. Her patrons will only spend money they have. Since Obrainless will raise taxes, her business will suffer. AND…she’ll get taxed higher, too.
Voting without thinking. Make the U.S.A. like the U.S.S.R.!
Yes, yes, and yes. But I am coming to your fair state next month for a motorcycle rally — I need to check if Colorado and Arizona have reciprocal C&C –
Instead if someone giving up a piece of the pie Michelle, how about we all work harder to make a bigger pie?