Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Paul Tonko excel at hypocrisy.
They are touting a federal low-interest loan program to promote manufacturing in the United States ("Gillibrand pushes loans program," Feb. 19) even as businesses start to struggle with the onerous burdens of the Affordable Care Act.
Under Obamacare, a business that has 50 or more employees must provide costly, government-dictated health insurance or pay a $2,000 fine per employee. The insurance cost per employee now averages at least $5,000. If a business has fewer than 50 employees, it need not provide this costly benefit. Thus, businesses are not expanding beyond 49 employees and are laying off workers and cutting hours. This is what Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Tonko voted for; their actions discourage expansion.
Now they tout some federal loan program designed, they say, to help businesses expand. Why would a business expand so that it would be forced to spend more than $5,000 per employee for Obamacare? Why didn't they choose a medical device manufacturing firm to tout their new scheme? That's because they voted in Obamacare to raise taxes on these businesses to the tune of 2.3 percent.
The shame is that Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. Tonko don't recognize the economic folly of their policies.
ROBERT JONES
Troy