Posted on 04/01/2010 3:27:31 AM PDT by Man50D
President Barack Obama is promoting his health care law's benefits for small businesses as he tries to rally public support for the massive overhaul.
During a speech Thursday in Portland, Maine -- the second stop in a series of appearances to sell the reforms -- Obama was to focus on the plan's short- and long-term impacts on small businesses, many of which have suffered during the economic downturn.
Under the plan, businesses with 25 or fewer employees with average annual wages of less than $50,000 will receive tax credits this year if they provide health care coverage to their workers. Those credits are expected to increase by 2014, with 3.6 million small businesses benefiting, according to Democrats.
Also starting in 2014, companies with up to 100 employees will be able to buy insurance through new state-based purchasing pools, or exchanges, with the goal of giving small businesses the same kind of purchasing power as employees at larger companies. Twenty-two million self-employed Americans will also be able to purchase insurance through the exchanges.
Overall, the 10-year, nearly $1 trillion overhaul Obama signed into law last week will extend coverage to 32 million people who are currently uninsured and will shape how almost every American receives and pays for medical treatment.
The law doesn't require businesses to offer insurance, but hits employers with 50 or more workers with an annual fee if the companies don't insure them and the government ends up subsidizing workers' coverage. Those fines have troubled critics of the overhaul, who argue that the increased costs could bankrupt companies already trying to recover from the recession.
Many Republicans are predicting that the overhaul will prove devastating in the November elections for Democrats who voted for it. Some in the GOP are calling for the revisions to be repealed.
But in Maine, Obama will be preaching to the choir in a state that has been a leader on health care reform, establishing programs to lower prescription drug costs and extend health insurance to the working poor.
After speaking in Maine, Obama planned to travel to Boston to attend two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee.
He never stops campaigning, with the open assistance of a compliant, parrot press.
There fixed.
zero is going to wear out a bunch of airplanes before the he is through. If the American public had any idea what these jaunts are costing they would be outraged.
.....:)
I doubt that he is worried about “selling” his healthcare reform...seems to me that “selling” is code-word for “strong-arming” political leaders in regions where their may be concern about their loyality to the ruling elite.
Blatant damage control. The only reason to keep selling a ‘sold’ product is the expectation of problems. Just remember: it’s great, it’s historic, even when you suffer or don’t benefit at all.
So his “Polish the Turd” tour has officially started???
I keep seeing this trotted out as a Plus for HCR.
Can anyone one explain to me if this is BS or not? What does this actually look like for the small business owner in the real world?
Thanks in advance.
Isn’t the northeast having devastating rains and floods?
And Obama is on a propaganda road trip?
How many times do we have to keep pounding a square peg into a round hole?
Isnt the northeast having devastating rains and floods?
Wasn’t President Bush pilloried over Katrina and New Orleans Flooding? Maybe the majority of people in the Flooded areas are not the “right” kind of people. They can take care of things themselves, he really doesn’t need to have a look-see.
He’s a two bit sleazy traveling snake oil salesman.
Why should he stop campaigning, we are financing his flights areound the country in Air Force One, and when he is on the road , he isnt looking at the Wookie in the white House?
After speaking in Maine, Obama planned to travel to Boston to attend two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee.
Have you noticed that Obama is only doing this in blue states? States where it's a little hard to find people who disagree with him?
No guts, no glory. If he wants to sell ObamaCare, let him try selling it to people who haven't bought it yet.
Let him try to sell it in Wyoming.
I am praying that God would strike him mute. I am getting tired of his continual lying.
Well, that's not Maine, whose motto is "Turn down federal money? Are you mad?"
All the more reason Obama would have to go there and get into their faces.
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