GOP Blasts Waxman on Abuse of Power
“Do these liberal leaders really prefer corporations to violate their legal obligation and ultimately, freedom of speech in order to hide the truth about how Obamacare hurts job creators? This bullying is a clear abuse of power,” says Rep. Paul Broun (R.-Md.)
by Michelle Oddis at Human Events
Republican lawmakers are denouncing Rep. Henry Waxman for summoning corporate executives to a congressional hearing on the financial impact of healthcare on their companies, saying his tactics are an “abuse of power.”
The corporations recently filed legally mandated reports on the impact associated with the new healthcare legislation, saying the new bill will cost their businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of the new costs stem from a tax provision in the bill that will force companies to pay more for providing prescription drug coverage to retired workers.
AT&T says costs of the new healthcare law for their company is $1 billion, John Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; 3M, $90 million; AK Steel, $21 million; Valero Energy, $30 million; and most recently Prudential Financial Inc. said it will take a $100 million hit in its first quarter. Their accounting also estimated there would be thousands of lay offs, and consumer-cost increases.
Rep. Waxman (D.-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is furious at the corporations for undercutting the new legislation and demanded that the company CEO’s come to Washington for a hearing April 21.
“The Democrats’ ‘surprise’ is hard to understand considering they were warned repeatedly about the massive new costs for U.S. employers. This bill creates a punishing new Medicare tax which the NFIB says small businesses will be ‘most likely’ to bear, killing jobs and pushing back our nation’s economic recovery,” said Rep. Peter J. Roskam (R.-Ill.).
Other Republicans called Waxman’s tactics an abuse of power.
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