Romney calls Obama out of touch on hiring impact of health care law

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

(CBS News) ORLANDO -- Mitt Romney used President Obama's new health care law Tuesday to hammer him as out of touch with the economy, arguing that Obama is naively unaware of the impact of the Affordable Care Act on small businesses.

"Now just yesterday the president said something else that shows just how much out of touch he is. He said he didn't understand that Obamacare was hurting small business, he doesn't understand that Obamacare impacts small business, and you have to scratch your head about that," Romney told an audience of about 300 at Con Air Industries, an HVAC product manufacturer and distributor.

"The president needs to get in touch with what's happening in the private sector, what's happening with middle income families and the damage that's being done by the specter of Obamacare and the taxes that it already charges to businesses in the health care sector."

Romney was responding to an interview Obama gave to KTIV-TV in Sioux City yesterday, where he said that only insurance companies should have been affected by the healthcare law, and that a small business that said it closed as a result of the health care reform "probably wouldn't have been impacted by that."

Most provisions of the law are slated to take effect in 2014, assuming it is not thrown out this month by the Supreme Court. Republicans have seized on Obama's comment to further attack it.

To back up his claims, Romney cited a March 2012 Chamber of Commerce survey of 1,339 small businesses, 73 percent of which said the healthcare law specifically made it more difficult for them to hire people.

Romney also reiterated healthcare policy proposals he has said he would put in place after repeal of the Affordable Care Act, including block-granting Medicare funds to states, offering tax incentives to individuals who buy insurance, and offering private options for Medicare recipients.

The Obama campaign said repeal of the law, as Romney wants, would "discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions, charge women higher premiums than they charge men for the same coverage, and kick young adults off their parents' plans when they graduate high school or college." Spokeswoman Lis Smith also said Romney's proposals for Medicare would increase costs on seniors and bankrupt the system.

Matthew Shelley contributed to this report

[marychgo]

Isn't it odd? The specific company Romney said was an example of the huge, horrible problems small businesses are having because of "uncertainty" about PPACA said its consolidation (closing an Iowa location, moving about half the workers to a Wisconsin location) had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with PPACA. In fact, the company said the reason for its action was lack of DEMAND, precisely what Obama (and every Keynesian on this thread) would have predicted!

[skivtyo]

It could not be more clear that Obama is in over his head. His only 'plan' for the economy is ever more 'stimulus' spending - specifically on groups/organizations that are biggest supporters coincidentally. The private sector is the engine of the economy, not the goverment and goverment employee unions. Obama just does. not. get. it.

[hillzhavays]

He's convinced that, like many libs, that spending will create a wave of demand. At least he's convinced that spouting that BS will attract votes from all the novices who don't understand the market economy or economic mechanisms. Frankly I think it's the latter. You would have to be pretty stupid to believe that crap, and he's not stupid. Incompetent, but not stupid.

[hillzhavays]

by sjc_1 June 13, 2012 10:19 AM EDT
I do not see uncertainty about 2014, it is all spelled out in the law and has been analyzed by the GAO and others many times. The uncertainty comes from the insurance companies and how much they will raise premiums next year. That is where the uncertainty is. Without the healthcare law, state insurance regulators were suppose to be watching, but many were looking the other way or not looking at all. THAT is business uncertainty.
_________________________________________

You don't see any uncertainty because you don't know the first thing about running a business and covering costs in order to make a profit. This makes you just like Obama.

By mandating that employers buy expensive health insurance for their employees, the new health reform law will raise the cost of labor and make it more expensive than otherwise to hire new workers. How much more expensive? No one knows. When a business doesn't know, it waits until it knows before it makes a move.

You are a novice commenting on something that is clearly beyond your capabilities.

[ugacrew]

Friday night, I spent 24 hours with my mother at Barnes Jewish Hospital Emergency and Trauma Center in St. Louis, the largest in the state of Missouri, and one of the best in the nation. I saw many people who were sick and suffering. They were of different races and represented all walks of life. Many appeared to be poor, and many were there because they did not have access to regular medical care. I learned that last month alone, this emergency and trauma facility treated a record number of 9000 people. Some were admitted for additional care and some were released.



As I witnessed the sufferings, I reflected on the countless numbers of heartless, self-serving, but INSURED people who having the luxury of their choice of doctors, persist in protesting "Obamacare." The only people who are really "out of touch," are those who continue fail to realize that the costs for treating these people are already being passed on to those who have insurance, even in complete absence of Obamacare.



They should stop being hypocritical and reducing this desperate need to a political debate. This is not about whether or not you like the President. Remove the name "Obama" from "Obamacare," and realize that you are actually protesting the "Care" for thousands of sick and suffering HUMAN BEINGS. Further, you are not protesting having to pay for something you are already paying for through outrageous premiums that only continue to rise.



The majority of people who choose the medical profession do so because they are COMPASSIONATE and CARING people. They are NOT heartless but are DEDICATED to their professions IRRESPECTIVE of political affiliations and WANT to help the suffering. They WILL CONTINUE to help the suffering DESPITE your protests and IF NECESSARY, and in order to continue their humane services, will PASS these costs on to WHOEVER can pay for it.



You have a chance to be a part of a solution by offering alternatives, yet you choose to persist only in protesting because you want to rant about a President you don't like.



You are NOT an Island. Many of these suffering individuals have children at home who to be cared for. Many need to show up at work to provide services for you. Many need to be healthy enough to fight your fires; protect you from crime; keep your children; teach your children; pave your roads; sweep your streets; drive your busses; pick up your trash; purify your water; prepare your food; stock your stores; and if nothing more, listen to you rant about your self-serving preferences.


Today it is someone else, but tomorrow it may very well be you. People who are selfish and hateful never win and always, be it irony or fate, inevitably reap what they sew. You would be wise to know that "except the grace of God........................."

[hillzhavays]

Alternatives? Sure, come up with a way to pay for it and I'm on board. Until then, you're on your own. Gotta pay for it. The Healthcare Fairy isn't going to come along and give you free medical care. Someone has to pay for it. That's the problem with bleeding hearts - all talk.

[RollotheNorman]

What exactly would Willard know or *care* about anything's impact on small businesses. Willard's all in for Multinationals and Bank's that are too big to fail, as are his friends in the House. But small business, nah, that's just not worth Willard's time.

[skivtyo]

If you want a recovery vote for Romney...If you want to go down the path of Greece and Califoria with Obama's Lefty policies then vote Obama - just don't be surprised when the wheels finally come off after suffering through a few more years of dismal economics/poor leadership.

[nearl451]

Gee....

Replace Obamacare with ROmneycare and the private mandate that he so loved in Mass.?

What a great sign.

[Thinkbeforeyouwrite]

Okay, buddy boy Biff, how will you solve the problem of affordable health care for the ccountry? Will you sweep it under the rug like so many administrations have done? (At least Obama tried to do something and with an old GOP idea.) The people that struggle with it do not have the funds to raise a stink about it like the people that want to keep their low taxes on their millions. Many years ago, your mother thought universal healthcare was an acceptable idea. You wouldn't dare suggest that would you? Horrors! Socialism!!

[TimeToEvolve]

Well Robmee why didn't you help rally for the public option or for universal single payer health care (Medicare for all). Instead you are rallying against what you were for in Massachusetts.

[retmw1]

DJ

So if Romney wants to chamge it, he's saying that his plan in Mass. is no good.

[hhandyman]

Mr Romney seems not to know how his "ideal Ryan budget" would destroy the middle class while robbing the working class pocket to the benefit of the top 1% of 1% We need a Republican in the presidents office like we need another group in the soup kitchens or bishops pantry taking donated foodstuffs because the wealthy didn't see fit to hire anyone to take care of the needs.. It would be wrong to end the war on poverty by closing the doors on the poor and giving more to those that have little room to receive it their accounts run over to more than is needful for daily substance.

[hillzhavays]

by sjc_1 June 12, 2012 5:37 PM EDT
September of last year President Obama presented his jobs proposal to Congress that was favorable to small businesses. The Republicans said it was a "give away to small business". I thought the GOP was always for small business?
____________________________________

As a small business suffering in this economy, if you give me something without any incentive to do something for it, as in hire someone or expand my business so I have a reason to hire someone, I'm going to take the money and bank it. The GOP wanted strings attached to the tax breaks. There weren't any. This is not complicated stuff, sjc. But it is apparently so for Obama the community organizer and his juvenile staff of organizers.

Small business cannot borrow in order to get a capital injection for expansion, they have no incentive to hire and there is a colossal amount of uncertainty as to what costs they will face in 2014 because of Obamacare. Obama has allowed all this to happen and doesn't understand why we are where we are. He is incompetent. Worse, he is no leader. He is a divider.

[sjc_1]

I think this is a good cartoon, the GOP is saving a drowning economy by throwing a rope with a noose on it instead of the Obama jobs package life preserver.

http://media.caglecartoons.com/media/cartoons/82/2012/06/11/113244_600.jpg

[sjc_1]

I do not see uncertainty about 2014, it is all spelled out in the law and has been analyzed by the GAO and others many times. The uncertainty comes from the insurance companies and how much they will raise premiums next year. That is where the uncertainty is. Without the healthcare law, state insurance regulators were suppose to be watching, but many were looking the other way or not looking at all. THAT is business uncertainty.