Obama Displays His Ignorance While Getting on High Horse

Reprinted from Amy Ridenour’s National Center for Public Policy Research Blog at http://www.conservativeblog.org.

President Obama continues to display how little he really knows.  After demonstrating his historical illiteracy last week by mouthing off about the Crusades, yesterday he upped the ignorance ante by attacking office supply company Staples.  

According to Obama, Staples is limiting the hours its employees work to avoid violating the ObamaCare employer mandate.  Staples denies this, saying it is a long-standing policy.  Here is Obama’s scolding:

It’s one thing when you’ve got a mom-and-pop store who can’t afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers … but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them.

(Isn’t he doing this just after he lectured us to stay off our high horses? — the Wife.)

It would almost surely be news to Obama that Staples has been struggling as of late.  According to Forbes:

On a full-year basis, Staples reported $23.1 billion in 2013 revenue, a 5.2% drop over 2012 full-year revenue. Full-year operating income came in at $1.2 billion, resulting in earnings of $1.16 per share, a 17% decline over full-year 2012 earnings.

In an effort to stop the bleeding and achieve $500 million in cost savings by the end of 2015, Staples said that it plans to close 225  of its 1,846 stores in North America by the end of 2015.

How many more stores would Staples have to close and how many other employees would be out of a job if the company had to also pay for health insurance?  

Next, when Obama says, “when I hear large corporations that…,” I wonder if he’s heard about any other employers who have cut back employee hours due to the mandate?  Jed Graham of Investor’s Business Daily has kept track of employers who have announced they are reducing employee hours.  Here’s part of his list.  Notice anything?

Of the 450 employers that have publicly announced they are reducing employee hours in response to ObamaCare’e employer mandate, 364 of them are public employers. 

Wonder why Obama doesn’t criticize them? Maybe it’s ignorance?

Reprinted from Amy Ridenour’s National Center for Public Policy Research Blog at http://www.conservativeblog.org.