The political genius in Obamacare is that it is such an immense and immensely complex piece of legislation that no one knows what’s in it. Nancy Pelosi notoriously said, “So we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” But only a few stalwart specialists in the media and pundocracy, including Betsy McCaughey, Cato’s Michael Cannon, and the WSJ’s Joseph Rago, have invested the hundreds of hours needed to comprehend Obamacare’s infinite intricacies and baffling befuddlements (which have been further multiplied by the Supreme Court ruling). After a cross-country tour Time Magazine’s Joe Klein, a friend of the law, claimed only 2% of the American public knows what is in the law; he should move the decimal point two or three places to the left.
It’s tough for Romney to attack this faceless legislative blob. He needs something specific to aim at – something that specifically and simply illustrates how Obamacare kills jobs. He needs a factoid that substantiates, amplifies and illustrates the phrase “job-killing Obamacare.”
Here it is: Obamacare imposes heavy fines on companies that go “over the limit.” What limit? The limit of 50 employees. Under the law, if a company does not provide insurance to its workers and has more than 50 employees, it must pay a fine of $2000 per employee for the number of full-time employees less 30. So if Acme Corp. has 48 employees, it need not provide insurance. But if it makes the mistake of hiring another 3 workers and still does not provide insurance, it must pay a tax of $42,000 [$2000 X (51-30)]. It gets worse, and far far more complex, but the whole point is to keep it simple.
Mitt Romney is very smart and has the right instincts on the issue, but he needs to put some meat on the bones of “job-killing Obamacare.” This is the way to do it. Employers pay a big fine if they go “over the limit” and hire too many employees. No wonder job growth is so anemic.
(The “Over the Limit Syndrome” is finally receiving the attention it deserves, a year and a half after we started to highlight it in research reports. Senator John Kyle mentioned in on Larry Kudlow’s show a week ago, and Mort Zuckerman mentioned it on ABC’s This Week show on Sunday.)
