[VIDEO] Small Business Owner: Obamacare Driving Me to Drink

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 20, 2013 12:32 pm

A North Carolina small business owner said she is being driven to drink more alcohol because of the stress brought on by Obamacare’s regulations, drawing laughter at a hearing about the new exchanges Wednesday.

The founder of early2surg, Sheila Salter, produced a chart showing she was taking a $4,584 bite out of her business due to Obamacare’s mandate that plans have at least 10 “essential benefits” she didn’t want at a hearing about the new health exchanges Wednesday.

“Now I challenge anybody in this room to look at the services that i selected for myself noting that I’m 61,” said Early2Surg.  I know I don’t look it, and I have no children or history of alcohol or drug abuse. Yet. Okay? Because This is driving me to drink.”

SHEILA SALTER: When I hear people talk about oh, you know, go to the exchanges, shop, shop, shop. You have one plan, okay? That plan includes the benefits listed in the left-hand column. Now you can see Sheila’s plan. Sheila’s plan was the one that I chose. I chose my services. I’ve done that all these years. I chose those services, chose that deductible for $202 a month. Now, with Obamacare, I have to have those ten essential benefits. Now I challenge anybody in this room to look at the services that I selected for myself, noting that I’m 61. i know I don’t look it, and I have no children or history of alcohol or drug abuse. Yet. Okay, because this is driving me to drink. But does anybody here really think that I need all the services on the left-hand column? I don’t think so.

Via: WFB

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Obama Refuses to Answer About Storm Victims’ Frustrations

President Obama this morning ignored a reporter’s question about the mounting frustration victims of Hurricane Sandy are having with the response to the storm, refusing to let a question from the press interrupt a FEMA photo op in which he was on display taking action.

An excerpt rom the press pool report, which starts with a quote from Obama:

“There is nothing more important than us getting this right. And we’re going to spend as much time, effort and energy as necessary to make sure all the people of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut know that the entire country is behind them in this difficult recovery effort.”

He spoke for about five minutes. Pool asked about frustrations of people, particularly Staten Island. He did not respond.

No doubt aware of the political perils – and potential benefits – of the fallout from the hurricane, Obama arrived at FEMA with multiple members of his Cabinet in tow in a massive display of presidential concern. Even Cabinet secretaries you wouldn’t expect to be involved in hurricane relief – such as the Secretary of Labor and the Small Business Administration Administrator – have been enlisted and were at this morning’s meeting.

Obama’s effort will indeed have some practical effect – anytime a president shows he is personally engaged in an issue, it helps get the various agencies involved into a higher gear.

But with scenes of devastation proliferating on voters’ TV screens around the nation and evidence mounting of an insufficient response, Obama obviously felt he had to be seen at FEMA for a second time this week before heading back out to campaign.

After the visit to FEMA, Obama departed for Ohio.

Via: White House Dossier

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Under Obama, 11,327 Pages of Federal Regulations Added

(CNSNews.com) – Over the past three years, the bound edition of theCode of Federal Regulations has increased by 11,327 pages – a 7.4 percent increase from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011. In 2009, the increase in the number of pages was the most over the last decade – 3.4 percent or 5,359 pages.

Over the past decade, the federal government has issued almost 38,000 new final rules, according to the draft of the 2011 annual report to Congress on federal regulations by the Office of Management and Budget. That brought the total at the end of 2011 to 169,301 pages.

That is more than double the number of pages needed to publish the regulations back in 1975 when the bound edition consisted of 71,244 pages.

The figures were released on Monday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., when the business federation held its annual Labor Day briefing on the state of the economy, obstacles to job creation and the burden of regulations on the labor market.

Randy Johnson, senior vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, distributed a handout of a Congressional Research Service analysis of a 2008 study commissioned by the Small Business Administration that estimated the annual compliance price for all federal regulations at $1.7 trillion that year.

Seventy percent of the regulations were economic, accounting for $1.236 trillion of the annual cost. The other regulations were, in order of cost, environment regulations ($281 billion), tax compliance ($160 billion) and occupational safety and health and homeland security ($75 billion).

“I think these kinds of figures, if you put yourself in the place of a business person you’ll find them fairly mindboggling,” Johnson said.

Economists with the Chamber also analyzed the OBM’s report on the study, calculating that if every U.S. household paid an equal share of the federal regulatory burden, it would mean a $15,586 tab for each household in 2008.

Ronald Bird, economist with the USCC, told CNSNews.com that the 7.4 percent increase in pages of regulations during the first three years of the Obama administration is higher than the increase over the first three years of the George W. Bush administration (2001, 2002, and 2003) when the publication grew by 4.4 percent.

Via: CNS News

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