Posted on 10/09/2012 5:23:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The White House has initiated an effort, possibly extra-legal, to head off required layoff notices to employees of defense contractors on the cusp of Election Day. Worse, without congressional approval, it has offered to pay firms' penalties and court costs, potentially $500 million or more, out of the Pentagon budget.
This puts defense contractors in an untenable position, creating additional economic uncertainty. They can break the law and keep the White House happy, or follow the law and annoy their major customer.
If this were Venezuela, no one would think twice. But in America, if we're not shocked, something is very wrong.
Layoff notices are required by November 1, according to the 1988 Workers Adjustment and Notification Act (WARN),because deep cuts in military spending, known as sequestration, are currently scheduled to take effect on January 1. If cuts occur, they will lead to mass layoffs.
The Obama administration is concerned that layoff notices could cost the Obama-Biden ticket votes, especially in Ohio and Virginia, swing states with a strong defense presence.
It is the first time in history that the White House has asked firms not to file layoff notices.
However, with Republicans and Democrats in Congress eager to take post-election action to avert sequestration, the scheduled cuts may be avoided.
In a memorandum dated September 28, the White House Office of Management and Budget counseled defense employers not to issue layoff notices on November 1.
OMB assured employers that if they did not send out layoff notices and layoffs occurred, the "contracting agency," namely the Pentagon, would absorb the penalties and attorneys' fees the employers would have to pay, a significant cost to taxpayers.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
The originator of thiis order is depraved. Let’s hope American business is not completely corrupt unlike our government which is completely corrupt
I believe that the Justice department(Holder) has already deemed this a “legal” action. Go figure. No wonder “government” agencies are arming themselves to the teeth.
If they are smart, they will follow the law. It the legal and moral thing to do. If that isn’t sufficient reason, they should consider the consequences after Zippy is out of the WH.
If these CEO’s take him up on it, I hope they are really confident he will win. If not, they may be taking a HUGE gamble if Romney doesn’t honor Obama’s illegal offer.
Once he agrees to reimburse those companies for any civil or criminal damages they “may” suffer for violating the law it is certainly corrupt and probably illegal.
This is the same dept (or division therein: BLS) that we are told would never ever bend the rules or unemployment figures for political gain. No sir, this administration plays it straight !
Once again Obie has exploded a cigar in his face by bringing notice to his illegal activities, supposedly to keep workers who are about to be fired from learning of their fate. How many of those aren’t aware now, after the attention brought to the issue?
If Obie was a lock for reelection I could understand some employers playing ball, but now they’d be foolish since the president won’t be around to make good on his offer. So, they’ll likely send notices eventually anyway , costing him even more votes.
The landslide began with the debate but continues to roll over this deserving slime bucket. To continue the landslide analogy; libs must be buried in November so deeply that the insanity in the dem party never sees the light of day again in our lifetime
There is a third option: delay the layoff.
If contractors delay the layoff until mid-January, WARN notices don't go out until mid-November, after the election.
Contractors have to pay another few weeks of payroll, but that might be a better option than breaking the law.
Remember people, these companies usually have products that are sold on the civilian market or they make components for such items that are. For every company that violates this law for Obama, I intend to find out what they sell or make components for marketable products and boycott those companies by not buying their wares. Spread the word and make this heard far and wide.
This administration is absolutely shameless.
Romney should let the contractors know, privately, that, if he wins and they cooperated with Obama, then not only will the money to pay for the lawsuits NOT be forthcoming, but that he will have the DoJ prosecute the management for its violations.
Put some pressure on those bastards.
The easy way for the companies to avoid legal problems or any Romney retribution is to issue the layoff notices immediately after the election and keep the employees on the job through the first week of January. Thus they have given the two months' notice and won't need any legal protection. One week of picking up the tab is far cheaper than defending themselves against criminal or civil legal action.
Wonder what other worse illegal actions this admnistration is doing that we don’t know about yet.
I’m pretty sure that keeping them on a week would screw up some sort of fiscal period scheduling and cost the contractors more than “just” a week of pay and benefits.
on a similar note obama has issued 923 executive orders in 40 months....since george washington through bush only 127 executive orders have been issued -
Those numbers don't make any sense. Wikipedia (yes, I know the warnings) lists Obama's first executive order as #13489 and the most recent listed is #13627. That implies that there were 13488 before Obama and only 139 since he was inaugurated.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html gives a non-Wikipedia source for executive orders.
Blatant law breaking is grounds for impeachment!
This is not a misdemeanor.
someone sent me this it may need fact checking..
WE MUST ALL WAKE UP AND LOOK AT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS:
EXECUTIVE ORDERS ISSUED……
Teddy Roosevelt: 3
Others Prior To FDR: NONE
FDR: 11 in 16 years
Truman: 5 in 7 years
Ike: 2 in 8 years
JFK: 4 in 3 years
LBJ: 4 in 5 years
Nixon: 1 in 6 years
Ford: 3 in 2 years
Carter: 3 in 4 years
Reagan: 5 in 8 years
Bush 1: 3 in 4 years
Clinton: 15 in 8 years
Bush 2: 62 in 8 years
That’s a total of 127 Executive Orders (bypassing Senate and Congress and any controls) since George Washington through George W Bush (all presidents until Obama)
Obama: 923 in 3½ years! That’s 7.27 times more than all the other presidents combined, in 3½ years!
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