Get thee to Vermont!

…but your wife or domestic life partner can’t.

In two separate news articles, employees of the University of Virginia and the United Parcel Service hear the ‘other shoe dropping’ as their 2014 benefits have been announced.

The non-union employees at UPS are learning that their spouses won’t be covered if they can obtain their own insurance. Similarly, spouses who have access to health insurance through their jobs won’t be covered in the coming year at the University of Virginia.

A WaPo editorial published yesterday that complained that UVa needs to get with the times and provide the same benefits for same-sex couples that they do married couples (the state of Virginia does not recognize same-sex marriage. Well, the UVa HR department must have heeded the WaPo’s advice, as next year, as many married along with all same-sex partners of UVa employees will be unable get health insurance through their spouse or domestic life partner. How’s that for marriage equality?

But seriously, this isn’t about same sex marriage. So when the talking heads say that it ‘isn’t Obamacare’ that is why businesses are cutting benefits, they’re partially correct. It isn’t ONLY Obamacare.
This is about the suckage that is the Obama economy. The Obama administration has waged a war on the economy on multiple fronts via energy sector regulation, onerous Obamacare requirements for employers, even more onerous Obamacare and federal requirements for businesses that deliver health care, tax policy on small businesses and the intoxicating teat of government handouts, all of which have sucked the life out of our economy like an an army of vampires latched onto its neck.

UVa and UPS are not alone, many companies are altering their health insurance benefits this coming year in order to stay afloat. You see it with the move towards part time employees, and you will see it with many different moves in the months to come. This will result in some interesting decisions being made in many two income households as many businesses take this approach. A lot of this is being driven by the 40% excise tax which will prove to be a real budget buster.

The Obama Administration has tied down the US economy like Gulliver in Lilliput.

The first law of tax policy is this, “If you want less of something tax it, and if you want more of something, subsidize it.” President Obama is subsidizing the welfare state and taxing away productivity, economic growth and the capitalist engine that drove this nation to greatness.The American people need to wake up and send adults to Washington who can dismantle this leviathan and unchain the American economy that’s been shackled for the last 6 years.

Dr. J.