Post a Comment On: Doug Ross @ Journal

At some point in the not very distant future the complete failure of Barack Obama's economic policies will become evident to even the most obtuse liberal. But I repeat myself.

Case in point: the destructive combination of Obamacare and hikes in the minimum wage.

Here's the saddest thing about President Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour — because "no one who works full time should have to live in poverty."

[Image]A fine sentiment, but many full-time, low-wage workers he aims to help are sure to become part-time as employers dodge ObamaCare's hefty fines. Undoubtedly, even after a minimum wage hike, many who now earn less than $9 an hour would have paychecks that are no bigger — or even smaller than today.

In his State of the Union, Obama didn't mention ObamaCare could add $2.40 an hour to an employer's cost for a full-time, very-low wage worker. Add it up and Obama is really proposing a full-time minimum wage of as much as $11.40.
The economic cost of raising the minimum wage is fiercely debated and likely overstated. But there's little doubt about how employers will react if they can simply sidestep ObamaCare's equivalent of a steep minimum wage hike for full-time workers: By making them part-time.

ObamaCare's potential $2.40/hour cost to employers would result from a $3,000 fine for offering coverage deemed either too pricey or too skimpy. Tack on an additional $1.75/hour wage hike and the pressure would be extreme on employers to cut hours to avoid ObamaCare fines.

...For profit-making firms facing a combined 40% state and federal tax rate, ObamaCare's nondeductible $3,000-per-worker penalty is the equivalent of $5,000 in deductible wages. Divided by 52 weeks and 40 hours a week, that fine would equal $2.40 an hour.

But because employers would owe no fine for a 29-hour-per-week worker, the $5,000 cost could amount to $96 an hour for the 30th hour of work. That's why the 30-hour workweek may disappear.
Let me repeat: thanks to a tsunami of unintended consequences unleashed by Obamacare -- a massive bill that not a single Democrat lawmaker bothered to read -- paying a worker for a 30th hour of labor in a week might cost a company around $100.

[Image]To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, for six decades we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment and affordable health care through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.

But there's a simple recipe for success. It's called the Constitution and a federal government limited to the enumerated powers specified therein.

Our blueprint embraces all races, all religions, all creeds and all colors. Our formula is the biggest tent of all, because it is not achieved by pandering to smaller and smaller slices of the population, but by embracing and celebrating individual liberty, private property rights, free markets and -- most of all -- limited government.

These aren't complicated concepts. They aren't difficult to embrace. But the powers that be -- the corrupt, the immoral and those tempted by the trappings of Washington -- must be dislodged post haste if we are to save this Republic, this shining city on a hill.