74% of Small Businesses Will Fire Workers Or Cut Hours Under Obamacare









Oh well, it was worth a shot. Delaying the employer mandate of ObamaCare is not going to significantly forestall what’s coming: a rain of pink slips. 74% of small businesses are slated to cut employee hours, anyway.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has forgotten more about small business jobs than the Obama administration knows, has released a report for those who still don’t grasp that regulations, higher taxes, and uncertainty don’t really conduce to economic productivity and job creation.

The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard notes:

“Small businesses expect the requirement to negatively impact their employees. Twenty-seven percent say they will cut hours to reduce full time employees, 24 percent will reduce hiring, and 23 percent plan to replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid triggering the mandate,” said the Chamber business survey provided to Secrets.

Under Obamacare, just 30 hours — not the nationally recognized 40 hours — is considered full-time. Companies with 50 full-time workers or more are required to provide health care, or pay a fine.

Other key findings (as if we need further evidence that the law is a grand debacle), as Bedard has it:
— 77 percent continue to think the U.S. economy is on the wrong track. However, small businesses are more optimistic about their local economy and individual business.
— The majority (61 percent) of small businesses do not have plans to hire next year.
— 88 percent of all small businesses support addressing entitlement spending to resolve America’s growing financial challenges and escalating debt.
— 83 percent support congressional efforts to reform the tax code — with the majority focusing on making it less complex.
— 81 percent of small businesses surveyed believe the immigration system is broken and needs to be reformed.
— In contrast to the president’s recent speech pushing new energy regulations, 90 percent of small businesses support easing EPA regulations and opening up more federal lands for drilling.

As someone who has worked the ground game for a successful Congressional campaign, one can testify that small business owners tend to loathe the economy under Democrats. The over-regulation, never-ending taxation, and general harassment from groups like the EPA and OSHA, not to mention unwieldy accounting rules like GAAP, make the cost of pursuing the American Dream increasingly burdensome.

It’s almost like the Democrats have a vendetta against small businesses; and if they don’t, they should prove otherwise.

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/07/6614...der-obamacare/