Prev Next
Featured Quizzes
Politix Daily Headlines
Featured Debates
Issues

See all 19 issues

TOLD YOU SO

Vegas Employer Fires 22 Because Obama Won

'Elections have consequences,' said the business owner who wished to remain anonymous

Next>

by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t +

Image: living-las-vegas.com

Remember those pre-election promises by employers that their staff will suffer if Obama is re-elected? Well, the workforce trimming has begun.

Like this article? B Vote Up
?

Is 'David' right to be concerned about business costs imposed by Obama?

252 Comments (view in Forum)

  • MBernard
    !
    So the guy fire 22 employees b/c Obama won, and Obama's the one destroying the country. Republicans should never hold any office post ever. they should've all been voted out.
  • PuroChorizo361
    !
    Their businesses don't deserve to survive! If they continue making money their business should be taken away so others can take over what they can't handle!
  • CanisCanemEdit
    !
    @MBernard -

    "Jim Amos, CEO and chairman of Tasti D-Lite, a frozen yogurt franchise that operates in 14 states as well as globally, is certain of one thing: The ruling will hinder growth in the franchise space.“It’s going to force franchisees to shift workers to part-time to avoid the 50-employee threshold,” he said.“It will keep new owners and new openings on the sideline.”"

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/48000806/Small_Busines...

    "Small business owners and advocates responded to today’s Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with anger, confusion and a lot of questions about where they go from here.

    “At this point, I have more questions than I have answers,” said Larry Mocha, president, Air Power Systems in Tulsa, Okla.“We already provide health insurance for our employees and have for many years. How will this impact our premiums? How will this impact [America’s] health-care system? And how will this impact my small business?”"

    "The Supreme Court ruled that the government can require that most Americans have health insurance, and require that individuals pay a penalty for not having insurance, which, according to Chief Justice John Roberts,“may reasonably be characterized as a tax.”

    “This decision sustains the uncertainty they currently have,” says Steve Caldeira, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association.“The impending costs of health care do not give business owners confidence to open that extra store or to hire more people and create the economic output our country needs.”"
  • martydotcom
    !
    Until we know who David is the is just another Troll Plant story. Even Bsking could have tossed a more sophisticated story. Listen to the guy, If he's capable of running a 122 person company .... well I guess it doesn't take much to manage laborers

  • Load more replies >

  • CanisCanemEdit
    !
    Nearly 100% of all independent analysis of the impact of Obamacare on mid to small businesses shows a significant cost increase.

    Businesses all employ people based on profit. Cut the profit and you cut the people.

    This is just the begining.
  • Laradian
    !
    No, rather, he's just another bitter, angry, republican sore-loser. That all. This is his way of just blowing off steam.

    Once his business starts to tank, he'll probably go looking for them again. I hope they don't go back. But instead open their own business right next to his.
  • Sonny
    !
    "But a new study by the Urban Institute — modeling the effect of Obamacare’s various provisions on employer behavior had the law been in effect in 2012 — found the health care reform law would’ve only impose a modest increase of 2.2 percent on total employer spending. More strikingly, for small businesses of 100 employees or less, total spending would’ve actually decreased by 1.4 percent"-----

    AND:..."Open enrollment for individual and small business health insurance exchanges begins Oct. 1, 2013.“Exchanges are probably the most important provision of health-care reform for small businesses because they will help lower costs and improve choice of plans,” says Erin Musgrave, communications director at Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that has pushed for health-care reform."....

    AND.."If you employ 25-49 people, you won’t face this choice. The government won’t require companies with fewer than 50 employees to offer health insurance starting in 2014, and therefore these companies won’t have to contend with possible fines like their big brothers."..AND----" Small businesses that meet certain criteria would be able to purchase health insurance through an "insurance exchange" – allowing them to choose among a multitude of plans that would provide better coverage at lower costs than they could find in the current small group market.
    Many small businesses that provide health insurance for their employees would receive a small business tax credit to alleviate their disproportionately higher costs and encourage coverage. The tax credit would be targeted to those firms with employees whose average wages fall below a certain threshold.
    The current reform options include financial incentives for medium- and large-sized firms to provide health insurance coverage through so-called "pay-or-play" provisions. Firms with payrolls or employment levels below a certain threshold, which would include the vast majority of small businesses, would be exempt from the pay-or-play provisions.
    The creation of an insurance exchange would also provide better and lower-cost options for workers in small businesses that do not offer health insurance. Low-income individuals and families would receive sliding scale subsidies to help them purchase insurance. Additionally, health insurers would not be allowed to screen potential enrollees for pre-existing conditions.
    The proposed reforms could help spur entrepreneurial activity by increasing the incentives for talented Americans to launch their own companies, and could increase the pool of workers willing to work at small firms. Further, successful reform would reduce the phenomenon of "job lock," in which workers are reluctant to leave a job with employer-sponsored health insurance out of fear that they will not be able to find affordable coverage. Small firms that are unable to provide health insurance for their employees bear the greatest cost of this phenomenon.
    Reductions in absenteeism and improvements in worker productivity resulting from better health outcomes because of expanded coverage would particularly benefit small businesses.".....

    Just a few thoughts and references on the subject...
  • Denizen_Kate
    !
    Is a Las Vegas casino a "mid to small business"? I'm not sure where the line is drawn. This article is more than likely about Steve Wynn (I'd bet money on that), and he has a pretty big enterprise going. Nothing small or even mid-sized about ol' Steve.

  • Load more replies >

  • Zazziness
    !
    @Amtrak_Sam Simple. He would have laid them off eventually but not made a big, political deal out of it. Time shares are doing terribly right now because people can pick up fully-owned vacation properties for a good price.
  • Amtrak_Sam
    !
    @Fishbone345 If he was planning on reducing anyways, presumably the reason is cost, which is excuse enough. He ties his hands by opening his mouth about the election outcome. If Romney had won and then he fire people anyway he'd look like a total ass.
  • Fishbone345
    !
    @Amtrak_Sam He looks like an a55 now. You are debating levels of how much a55 he resembles.
    I say its moot. The guy is a piece of work, that planned it all along and wants his 15 minutes.
    Next story...

  • Load more replies >

  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    You're going to see more of this. I'm praying that this once great nation makes it through. No one deserves to have to live under eight years of obama. It is more punishment than a convicted criminal deserves. So sad. So sicking sad.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix Yeah, it IS sickening that someone is so petty that he will take out his disappointment on his employees. I'm guessing that his former employees will not let him remain anonymous for long.
  • Zazziness
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix When I read hyperbole like this, it makes me angry. There are people in the world who live every day with warfare and explosions going on around them. There are people dying for lack of clean drinking water or decent food or antibiotics. And yet here you sit in your comfy armchair at your expensive computer whining that you have it rough. If you want to be a drama queen, fine, but you better find something real to be dramatic about. Right now, you are living in luxury that most emperors never enjoyed because you live in the U.S. You might want to try on a little gratitude. It's good for the soul.

  • Load more replies >

  • MBernard
    !
    There are really truly crazy people out there. My wife just told me that a republican killed his wife and kids b/c Obama won. Idk if that's true but she said she heard it from her sister who heard it from the news. Holy sht.
  • Sonny
    !
    Yes, MBernard...and this guy is one of them!...I SINCERELY hope & pray that this guys business get boycotted---night and day. That all of his sponsors leave him, that his bills pile up to his eyeballs, that his creditors come after him hook & nail---and that he eventually goes out of business---and has to go and fill out a work application from someone else. And, maybe---with any degree of luck at all---his new boss----Just might turn out to be one of the people that he fired-----out of his hate and lust for revenge over Obama winning a second term....Good riddance to him!
  • Politicskid
    !
    Really? His profits will suffer from it. I'm sure he did it because he honestly thought he was going to need to downsize due to the high taxes and regulation Obama will create. He needs to save extra money for lawyers.
  • Denizen_Kate
    !
    Not just a jerk, but an abject COWARD, hiding behind an alias. I'd bet money it's Steve Wynn, since I remember reading a few articles last month about his having a "talk" with his employees about what would happen if Romney lost. Come on, Steve! Grow a pair and admit it's you!
  • TheLoneRanger
    !
    @Politicskid -

    The stock Market fell 313 points on the news of Obama’s reelection and 121 points on Thursday for a two day fall of 434 points.

    American’s are falling right into Obama’s subversive socialist little hands. More lay offs mean unemployment. And this will mean more people will go on food stamps and possibly on other social entitlements. Eventually Republicans voters who are in this predicament will vote Democrat as they see their own party looking to cut what they need to survive.

    This scenario will eventually ensure a permanent Democrat majority in the Senate and the House and a guaranteeing a Democrat voted in ever four years into the White House. From there we will become another Greece.

  • Load more replies >

  • idlbeokay_bob
    !
    The sky is falling the sky is falling! Grow up!!! There was no reason to fire anybody, it is an attempt to make some half assed point at the expense of some hard working americans. There are many other places to gamble around the country.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    "Is 'David' right to be concerned about business costs imposed by Obama?" Naw, no business owner should be concerned about costs. Why should they, They didn't build it! Now, to be serious, this question just might rank #1 for dumb questions. What's the use to own a business if you can't profit from that ownership? Of course, if you've never ran a business, you wouldn't understand....(can you hear me now Obama?)
  • Comment removed for Engagement Etiquette violation. Replies may also be deleted.
  • MRMacrum
    !
    "Of course, if you've never ran a business, you wouldn't understand."

    I run a business now. This guy is just a loser right wing grand stander who is making a point at the expense of his employees. His need to fire someone did happen overnight. And it certainly did not happen because of an Obama policy. If it did, then he is a piss poor manager. What a loser.
  • Sonny
    !
    I sure hope he does...So that people can decided if they want to "teach this guy a thing or two".....I hope his business gets boycotted.

  • Load more replies >

  • marine1
    !
    here is the deal, if i can't maintain the profit margin that i want and if the risk get too great, something will have to give and as the owner, i will be the last something
  • GetAwake
    !
    Can someone post a link to the audio? There are stories around the web that read "Audio link here:" with no link. I want to hear this.
  • mimi57
    !
    @GetAwake My avatar (eye) and vote up notification is gone. I only have a thick black line and have to check my email for responses.. do you or anyone else know why?.. Thanks...
  • GetAwake
    !
    @mimi57 @CanisCanemEdit might be having the same problem...I couldn't see HIS avatar while ago. I can see yours, though. You aren't suspended as of yet. No "circle-and-slash", I mean. Have you had Sitter-issues today?
  • Smoovious
    !
    @marine1
    It is like people think that businesses just create money out of thin air to pay the liabilities with. They want everything free, they want the company to eat all extra costs without raising prices, etc. Free enterprise doesn't work like that. At the bottom line, your revenues have to at the minimum, meet, your expenses, or you're out of business.
  • Russell797
    !
    If the medical insurance model in this country is to be based on employer provided coverage, then all employers should be made to do so as a part of doing business. Your access to health care should not depend upon who you happen to work for. If you don't like that model then let's go to single payer where everyone is covered like in every other civilized, industrial nation on the planet.
  • Politicskid
    !
    You do know that if employers have to cover more health insurance, it's means they'll have to pay there employees left. It's a wash. I'd much prefer my employer let me choose how to spend my money instead of automatically allocating money to certain things, like health care.
  • Russell797
    !
    @Politicskid Most employed people can not pay the cost of medical insurance on their own. It's prohibitively expensive without assistance such as received from their employer. How many have $500.00 per month for a single plan, or over $1000.00 per month for a family? Then they still must make deductibles and co-pays. It's an unrealistic expectation to ask the average person to pay their own way.
  • Politicskid
    !
    @Russell797 Actually, no, I'd think most people would gladly pay a thousand dollars a year for the best healthcare in the world and a very long life expectancy. Yes, other nations have public healthcare, but is it anywhere near as good as ours?

    My point is that if companies gave people less health benefits, they would probably pay them more, or offer more people jobs, because they'd have more money to expand. And if a company really gave you too little benefits, then you can go work for somebody else if your labor is really worth that much.

    So if a company is paying their employees more, then they can afford to get the healthcare they want. I'd prefer to be paid $51,000 a year and getting to decide how to spend it then only getting $50,000 and $1,000 in benefits I have to use.

    I have a relative who is a small business owner, and he's is going to have ego either cut his employees wages or lay off some in order to cover the rising cost of healthcare created by ObamaCare. That's not creating jobs.
  • Russell797
    !
    @Politicskid You don't get it. Where I come from, that's $1000.00 per month...not per year. I also understand that companies have a difficult time with the expense of providing healthcare. This system of employer based healthcare leaves many people under protected and far to many without insurance. Without insurance you get no preventative health care. Yes business is important. So is a healthy population. We need a system which maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of both. The current system does justice to neither business nor a health of society.

    Obamacare did not create the prohibitive cost of health care, it's been that way and getting worse for years. That current cost breaks the back of business, leaves to many under insured, uninsured and going without proper healthcare. What can we do about it? Right now, people can not afford the cost of healthcare....period....unless they are quite rich.
  • PayThatCEO
    !
    @Politicskid

    People would gladly pay a thousand dollars a year for the best healthcare in the world?!?!

    First of all, where the hell do you get healthcare for $1,000.00 a year? You're obviously not from around here, are you? The company I work for charges a family of 4 $6,000 a year! And guess what kind of company that is? Healthcare.

    Let's take another business "model" and see how it looks. How about instead of paying John CEO and 15 of his executive underlings MILLIONS of dollars in salaries and perks, that we cut back on THEM a little and take care of the company employees a bit better?

    See? Isn't that remarkably easy.

  • Load more replies >

  • DABurroughs
    !
    No real businessman lays off valued help because of something as remote as an election. That is like hearing a businessman drove 5 of his trucks off a cliff because of the election. Those employee may not have been needed anyway and he just saved this up to put on a show. Or he shot himself in the foot firing people his company needs and he will be begging to have them back when he can't do business. Or he had so screwed his business up on his own that he was going under and this was a way to get Glen Beck to talk about him as his sad business sinks into a hole.
  • Hootie
    !
    That's crazy! Sounds like lawsuit time to me. So, now they'll draw unemployment. Even if Romney had won, Obamacare had already been passed! It would've took years to overturn it. He just used it as an excuse. He probably bet to much cash on Romney, and lost!
  • Comment removed for Engagement Etiquette violation. Replies may also be deleted.
  •
    Wisdom73
    !
    I see the business owners reasoning behind watching out for his bottom line, but what he did was have an emotional reaction to Obama's win, and used firing some of his employees as a vent for his frustration. Unfortunately this is one of human races major faults, reacting out of blind emotion. It causes people to put on their blinders and ignore all reasoning and rational thought. You have a large majority of voters whose emotions are manipulated by the media who get them worked up into a frenzy. So much so that they get locked into a rut on one side or the other to the point facts no longer matter, and then they support their political party blindly without question, no matter how poorly they may perform. We all know many votes were cast out of emotional hatred for the other party, and here you have a man also acting with his emotional hatred and firing his workers in protest.

    A rational way to do this was to hand pink slips to the 22 workers saying that they may be laid off in the near future should things get worse than they are right now.
  • Smoovious
    !
    You mean like all those other companies who were about to send out pink slips, until Obama begged them not to, offering to pay for their WARN act penalties instead?
  • Smoovious
    !
    @FollowTheMoney
    Of course he did... he says so right in the article... he warned his employees a month in advance what he was going to have to do should the election ended up in the way that would have kept the upcoming regulations in place.

    Now, whether he was threatening them to vote a particular way, or just informing them of what he was going to have to do, so they could make a fully informed choice for themselves, that is an open question.

    I would like to hear the claimed interview for myself. Too many unanswered questions in the abridged reporting about it that we've been given.
  • Smoovious
    !
    @MRMacrum
    Because until I see something that tells me different, I'm going by what I've heard so far, and from what I've heard so far, I don't see anything wrong.

    He told his employees a month earlier that if Obama gets re-elected, which means his policies stick, then he's going to have to let some people go.

    Some in here are assuming malice, that it was revenge for Obama being re-elected, but I saw nothing in the article that suggested that. Just from a business standpoint, what he ended up having to do makes sense.

    Small business run so much tighter to a profit margin than a mega-corporation. It doesn't take much to turn a profitable small business into a money pit.

    What I want to hear in the audio, is how he was discussing it. Was he attacking Obama personally? Was he explaining the business decisions he was making? That would shed more light on it. As it currently stands, however, that it was personal revenge against Obama is something some posters here are assuming, and I don't yet see it that way.

    As for making my judgement? I'm free to make whatever judgement I see fit, based on the information currently available, same as everyone else in this thread. I just disagree with some of the other posters' judgements, and I'm sharing my own judgement, rather than just let them share theirs without debate.
  • EMS_Servant
    !
    @Politicskid

    Hmm, that sucks. If it's going to dictate how we live part of our lives I think we should be entitled to know what we are in for.
  • R Load more comments...