It's Not Just Caterpillar's $100M Cost, It's All Businesses

If people are worried about Caterpillar's $100M in new costs due to Obama Care, just imagine what it will do to an incredible number of American companies and complete industries. People will be in the unemployment line for a decade thanks to the Marxist in the WH and his like-minded idiots in Congress. They don't even care. As long as something convinces them it'll keep them in power, they're down for anything - constitution be damned. This is the Democrat party the far Left has wrought.

Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.

In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees."

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction machinery manufacturer by sales, said it's particularly opposed to provisions in the bill that would expand Medicare taxes and mandate insurance coverage. The legislation would require nearly all companies to provide health insurance for their employees or face large fines.

The Peoria-based company said these provisions would increase its insurance costs by at least 20 percent, or more than $100 million, just in the first year of the health-care overhaul program.

Comments

[Roy Adams Peoria, Il.]

AS a retiree from Caterpillar, I am amazed...well, not really... about your ignorance and arrogance. The company has for years tried their damnedest to take away benefits not only from the workforce but also the retirees and have succeeded very nicely.
Cat, like most other corporations, give not a whit about their employees. Of course they want this LONG overdue Health care to die off. It would cut into Jim Owens $17M bonus, while I pay $130 a month just for diabetes test strips. Caterpillar can kiss my ass. Come Sunday afternoon, I am sure that your Glenn- Beck- Rush- Limbaugh- Faux- News- loving- ass will be sore when the Dems RAM that Heathcare Bill thru. I'm guessing 219 votes. ... On another note, having read your comments about liberal democrats, I am a progressive and you can feel free to kiss my liberal, social justice lovin' ass,too!

[mark l.]

so much inside baseball with caterpillar...

ray lahood's, transpo sec, old district is the hometown of cat.

the libs tried offerring that cat would be SAVING jobs due to the stimulus, for about two days, as did obama, until the reality was reexamined.

that an illinois based company, within lahood's district would rebel at this moment...

this WAS a safe seat for dems.

curious how aaron shock is voting. caught him getting ambushed by maddow a while back...

[Mo]

Hey Roy, why don't you use your retirement to read some good books on economics and health care insurance and how the government interventions screwed costs so they went straight up? CAT didn't make that problem, it was/is the government's doing. Medicare, Medicaid, and yeah, employee-based insurance that should have been repealed after World War 2...it should not be in existence. You paid far less than the costs for years.

I agree that, btw, corporations can suck. So, we're going to give power to the government bureaucrats, increase costs, make access times longer (check out how well Romneycare is working...hint: It doesn't and all these things that the opponents of the similar or worse Obamacare are saying have come about in Mass.)? Might as well shoot yourself now and get it over, or wait, you can do it in 4 years when the system actually starts changing (remember, this is crucial, it must be done NOW! Someone dies every 10 minutes from lack of health insurance, per Harry Lenin Reid, but he's not too worried about how many will die in the 4 years. No, he's just going to raise your taxes, you idiot, and give you NOTHING in return.

Health care should NOT be under the government's purview. It is breaking every country that has it, or the quality goes down, and anything that says it doesn't is a lie. That's why Canadians come here for care, or are forcing or trying to force their government to open private care back up, as they have seen how destructive nationalized health care is.

We are SO screwed. Higher taxes for 4 years, and then bureaucracies out the woodwork. yeah, that's really great. Can't wait for rationing, and the good news? You'll be older and closer to the time we can tell your sorry ass goodbye, you can't waste health care resources because there aren't any left.

[mark l.]

got to ask roy...
your pension payout, 50% or closer to 80% of your highest pay, in addtion to your social security?

the one distinction that is occurring between the workers who enter the workforce today is that they are extremely lucky to get a pension plan that approaches 50%, while the parents of these kids are sitting on soc sec and benefits which work out to about 90% of the highest salary.

sorry roy...
we went from the greatest generation, to the most entitled genration, and now we are off to the SCREWED generation.

thank you for the country you have left us.

[Charlotte]

Thanks, Mo. You are so very right.

I have been in the healthcare business for over 20 years. The government's intervention in Medicare resulted in pricefixing to the max (once the government decided how much it was "worth" then the insurance companies followed suit)

Medicaid (which is for indigents, etc) is a nightmare. It pays pennies on the dollar.

That the Dims are willing to completely go off the cliff for this is appalling.

They are COUNTING on our memories being very short. Well, they are going to be quite amazed at the tsunami that is going to happen very soon. I have never seen people as angry ACROSS the board.

The elderly are going to have a lot of time on their hands and they will be picketing the offices of the reps for a long, long time to come.

Oh, and gee, isn't this great news? The organization that Planned Parenthood uses for statistics said that with the deathcare bill passed, they expect ABORTIONS TO INCREASE 30%.

Won't that be something? We will murder even more innocent babies in their mother's wombs with tax dollars paid by YOU and ME. I am sickened into total nausea.

[xerocky]

Hey Roy, wait till you have to wait a year to see the endocrinologist! That'll show us stupid right wingers, right?

[Candy]

Roy, how much did your grandfather and father pay for diabetes strips? And if they had to get them, would they go to the pharmacy and pay for them, not get them or wait for someone else to cover them first?

[mark l.]

"Are you really surprised that a company - who doesn't want to provide insurance to their employees, due to the cost - is saying it will cost millions?"

unemployment is 10.4%, and you want to blame the companies?

let me guess, they won't hire just to spite the hc policy.

this will lead to overwhelming outsourcing and manufacturing in foreign countries.

[SacTownMan]

Hey Bucky how's that Astroturfing going?

You go from one post where you just happen to have gone to a free clinic today on a medical post by Dan and now you just happen to live near a Caterpillar plant too!!!

Now that is an amazing coincidence,

What next a war post where you just happened to spend some time in Iraq?

Uncle George is certainly getting his monies worth today, keep up the good work!!

As far as Roy goes he can kiss my conservative ass and donate his fat pension to pay for the rest of you losers and your free ride express!!!

[eagleeye]

ahhhh...the smell of Conservative FEAR in the air.......gotta LOVE it!!!!

[mark l.]

http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator/annuity_calculator.htm

if you get a chance roy, check out this nifty annuity calculator.

plug in your lifetime donations to your pension benefit plan, MULTIPLY by 3, to account for interest/growth in investments, and then see the actual number that comes out for getting paid 20 years of benefits.

compare to what you are getting, now.

if it works out to about 10-20 grand per annum, you were at least honest with yourself.

[john]

Roy is just angry that there are still some industries in this nation that unions haven't put out of business.

Don't worry Roy, I'm sure healthcare will kill them off for ya.

[Robert Fredson]

This legislation by Liberals is an Act of War against the American Consitution. All bets are off if it passes--and all actions to stop Liberals are legitimate. All of them.

[Dawson]

Republicans, once the party of boring sobriety and solidness, are now the party of the kooky, the cracked, the unhinged. Republicans are not conservative in the least.

[Warren Bonesteel]

Wanna know what's really going on with the economy?
Google:
'MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis.'
'Market Ticker.'
'Calculated Risk'
'Zero Hedge'

additional info:
'iamned.'

Reality doesn't match what the talking heads or politicians are trying to tell you.

Also see: 'Global food crisis.'

[redc1c4]

if i ran Cat, i'd file BK the monday after the bill became law, thus voiding all my union contracts.
i'd hire new staff, with NO health care benefits what so ever, and just pay the fine, with the cost savings being used to finance the movement of production OCONUS.

[Elmo]

I believed in unions. Once. Had a high school pal, who worked the pit, at a GM assembly plant. And he would regale me with stories of how GM would indeed stick it to the workers every chance they got.

A couple years later .... me looking to get on a platform, in the North Slope, would go to the Teamsters building in Anchorage, to pay dues. To be on a years long waiting list, just to be considered (with dues due montly). Without question, easily was the most opulent building in town. By far.

Didn't pay dues too long. Spent every day after arrival, pounding the pavement, in the winter time (my feet bled into them boots they did). Got offshore on a platform, of my own accord.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Of course they want this LONG overdue Health care to die off. It would cut into Jim Owens $17M bonus, while I pay $130 a month just for diabetes test strips.

That's pretty amazing, since a box of 100 of them costs just $61.

http://www.allegromedical.com/diabetes-supplies-c520/freestyle-test-strips-p189482.html

And, since most people with Type 2 diabetes need to only test once a day, that means a hundred of them would last you almost three months.

http://www.diabetesdaily.com/wiki/Blood_glucose_monitoring

So nice try, troll. Or perhaps you can explain why you magically need six times the amount of test strips that the average diabetic does.

[Lightwave]

100 million a year, you figure that's average, multiply that by the Fortune 1000 companies, that's $100 billion a year for large businesses alone.

Throw in tens of thousands of small businesses, well, enjoy your price hikes, America. That is if you can afford them when the unemployment rate DOUBLES as millions and millions of jobs are lost due to companies going under due to exponential health care costs.

Ten years from now, March 21, 2020, I really do hope to see you all at the national protest riots.