You may be right. However, a fine of $1.3 million per day corresponds to $474.5 million per year. According to Post #2, this company had $2.28 billion in annual revenue in 2011.
I realize that's probably gross revenue, not net profits.
If so, that fine corresponds to 20.8 percent of their gross revenue. If ObamaCare turns into a 20 percent tax on conservative Christian businesses, there are ways around the problem. After all, that type of tax rate is not as bad as what some states impose on tobacco, alcohol, or gasoline, and lots of people are still willing to buy those products.
The best option is probably a major increase in sales to people angry over Obamacare. When combined with moving to a franchise model in which local store managers get the opportunity to own their own businesses which “just happen” to have less than the Obamacare threshold of 50 employees per business unit, that could effectively fix the problem.
For local stores which can't drop below 50 employees, maybe Hobby Lobby could agree with Chik-fil-A to cross-hire people beyond the Obamacare “small employer” limit, so each company has its “extra” employees working 29 hours a week? I'm sure Chik-fil-A would love to open more restaurants in or near Hobby Lobby buildings.
12 posted on Sun Jan 06 2013 10:58:07 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) by I cannot think of a name: “We’re going to be replacing our refrigerator soon, and honestly, if I could get one someplace for $1200, and Hobby Lobby was selling them for $1500, I’d buy there. To save this country we’ve tried darn near everything except concentrated pocketbook firepower. Fortunately my wife and I have lived a modest life and we can afford it. Every time I see a store expressing any kind of Christian idea in their advertising, I save it. If I could make EVERY dollar I spend go only to morally upright companies I would - even if it meant paying more.”
What “I cannot think of a name” says below is **EXACTLY** right. If Hobby Lobby can't find an American company willing to sell refrigerators, maybe they can call LG Electronics which might like an outlet paying higher profits to manufacturers than Wal-Mart. South Korea started enforcing its 59-year-old abortion ban again recently after years of tolerating abortion (short story: the outgoing South Korean president was an elder in a conservative Presbyterian church), and the old law banning virtually all abortions except those for rape and incest was upheld by the Korean Supreme Court last fall after the government started enforcing the abortion ban again.
Bottom line — having a backup plan is a really good idea. Government is slow, it's cumbersome, and it rarely works as fast as the free market can come up with “work-around” solutions to evade burdensome regulations.
Liberal tax accountants do this stuff all the time with tax shelters. Let's use tax laws for conservative advantage on Obamacare.
It won't take long before that 20.8 percent tax turns into a major political liability — and not for Hobby Lobby.