Westmoreland Marks Three-Month Anniversary of Healthcare Takeover

Representative Highlights Destruction to Small Businesses

Today, U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland marked the three-month anniversary of ObamaCare, the government's takeover of healthcare, by noting the broken promises that have followed its passage. Most alarming are the burdens placed on small businesses located throughout Georgia's Third Congressional District.

"The total cost of ObamaCare is close to $1 trillion," said Westmoreland. "But what's more shocking is the effect on small business owners. They are facing more federal government mandates but most won't get any tax breaks to help cover those new costs."

The National Federation of Independent Business -- the nation's leading small business association -- determined that healthcare reform "will do little to nothing to make purchasing insurance more affordable for small firms" because only 12% of small businesses will qualify for a tax credit to offset the costs of mandated healthcare. Even businesses that do qualify for the tax credit will lose it after six years -- even though healthcare costs will continue to increase for many years to come.

A perfect example of this bill hitting American small businesses is the 10-percent tax on tanning-bed services, which will hurt more than 18,000 businesses that offer indoor tanning.

"The President and Democrats promised this takeover would help create jobs, but that's not going to happen. I know firsthand from my time owning a business that government has never created a good-paying job by taking over part of the private sector and telling owners how to run their small business," added Westmoreland.

The new requirements and tax increases for businesses are so costly that they'll force the elimination of 1.6 million jobs over the next five years, with 66 percent of those jobs coming from small businesses.

Westmoreland took issue with the Democrat's claim that ObamaCare will help Americans gain affordable coverage and help small businesses: "All Americans, including those in my district, knew this plan was full of empty promises, but today they're more frustrated because we're now seeing the bad effects it's going to have on taxpayers and employers. It's not going to help create any jobs, but it will drive up costs and taxes."

Westmoreland supports a common-sense approach to healthcare, including allowing small businesses to pool together to offer low-cost insurance, lowering healthcare premiums, ending junk lawsuits that increase costs, and enacting health savings accounts to save for future health needs.

"We need to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with a real plan that lowers costs and looks out for small businesses," concluded Westmoreland.

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