By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
A key House Republican is warning that the mandate in President Obama's health care law requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide adequate health insurance to their workers is so cumbersome that even the parts designed to help firms with compliance will cause headaches.
With the so-called "fiscal cliff" quickly approaching at the end of the year, small-business owners on Thursday told a House subcommittee that the Obama administration's tax proposal would hurt the nation's leading job providers and prevent them from hiring or increasing wages and benefits.
Congressmen on Capitol Hill questioned President Obama's top consumer-protection advocate, Richard Cordray, about his agency's compliance with federal regulations designed to protect America's small businesses.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but a health insurance tax credit for small businesses, part of President Obama's health care law that gets strong support in public opinion polls, has turned out to be a disappointment.
It's drawn little attention, and no organized opposition, but voters next month will be asked to change Iowa's Constitution to remove the term "idiot" in defining who is eligible to vote.
"If nominated, I hope that Mr. Perez will be more open than his predecessor to the concerns of small businesses before pushing regulations that could put them out of business," Mr. Graves said in a statement. "Small businesses have been handicapped by unnecessarily burdensome regulations during the first term of President Obama, and this trend must stop."
Some in GOP likely to block Perez; Marylander seen as a Labor Cabinet pick →
"It's no secret that small-business owners have been struggling with existing taxes, regulations and mandates in a slow economy just to keep the doors open and the lights on," he wrote. "Now, under the law and this rule, they must take on the added and recurring burden of time-consuming calculations to see if they may be subject to the expensive employer mandate."
Top Republican hits health care law's burden on small businesses →
