Quote:Dear Leader Reid and Leader Pelosi:

When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat. Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.

Like millions of other Americans, our members are front-line workers in the American economy. We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision.

Now this vision has come back to haunt us.

Since the ACA was enacted, we have been bringing our deep concerns to the Administration, seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans. As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances. Most disconcerting of course is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated “December 31, 2013” deadline for the employer mandate and penalties.

Time is running out: Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios:

First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.


Second, millions of Americans are covered by non-profit health insurance plans like the ones in which most of our members participate. These non-profit plans are governed jointly by unions and companies under the Taft-Hartley Act. Our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the Administration, our employees will treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded other citizens. As such, many employees will be relegated to second-class status and shut out of the help the law offers to for-profit insurance plans.

And finally, even though non-profit plans like ours won’t receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they’ll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable, and will undermine the health-care market of viable alternatives to the big health insurance companies.

On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.

We believe that there are common-sense corrections that can be made within the existing statute that will allow our members to continue to keep their current health plans and benefits just as you and the President pledged. Unless changes are made, however, that promise is hollow.

We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions.

We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made.

James P. Hoffa
General President
International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Joseph Hansen
International President
UFCW

D. Taylor
President
UNITE-HERE

(07-16-2013 08:20 AM)blah Wrote:  I read the entire letter and the funny thing is that there is not one mention of what Hoffa actually wants congress to do. He wants them to fix it, but how? He never specifically asks for anything. I'm not sure if that is because he is a democrat and is not smart enough to come up with a solution, if he can't understand what the law is saying or if he realizes that there is no solution to this crappy law other than repeal and is afraid to ask for it.

(07-16-2013 08:58 AM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 08:20 AM)blah Wrote:  I read the entire letter and the funny thing is that there is not one mention of what Hoffa actually wants congress to do. He wants them to fix it, but how? He never specifically asks for anything. I'm not sure if that is because he is a democrat and is not smart enough to come up with a solution, if he can't understand what the law is saying or if he realizes that there is no solution to this crappy law other than repeal and is afraid to ask for it.

He probably just wants a waiver. All of Obama's friends will get waivers, then the only ones stuck with Obamacare will be Republicans.

(07-16-2013 10:37 AM)Smaug Wrote:  So, 15% of the population was uninsured and the president's plan was to wreck it for the other 85%.

Brilliant.

(07-16-2013 10:37 AM)Smaug Wrote:  So, 15% of the population was uninsured and the president's plan was to wreck it for the other 85%.

Brilliant.

(07-16-2013 11:37 AM)smn1256 Wrote:  Hoffa needs to get thousands of trucks to parade through every capital and major city, block traffic, cause unrest, and maybe even cause a riot or two. They are, after all, the Teamsters.

(07-16-2013 01:33 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  I just love it when some of those who fought so hard for 'the cause' and ignored the warnings of others who said this bill would be a train wreck find out that those people were correct and it IS a train wreck. The rank and file should look hard at their leadership's blind willingness to follow a charlatan and his minions down a rat hole that will destroy their own healthcare plan. They were sold out by their own stupid leadership.

The unions supported it. Now, it's time to pay the piper for being stupid.

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

(07-16-2013 01:50 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

Let's not forget that if employers treated their employees with respect in the first place, there would be no need for unions.

(07-16-2013 01:50 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

Let's not forget that if employers treated their employees with respect in the first place, there would be no need for unions.

(07-16-2013 02:14 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:50 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

Let's not forget that if employers treated their employees with respect in the first place, there would be no need for unions.

Fail.

As I asked before, what exactly was the problem? You couldn't answer it then, and you can't answer it now.

(07-16-2013 01:50 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

Let's not forget that if employers treated their employees with respect in the first place, there would be no need for unions.

(07-16-2013 02:17 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 02:14 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:50 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  

(07-16-2013 01:47 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Got to redistribute our wealth to be able to add new union members for additional union bosses to be paid.
So instead of owning the latest jets, they can afford to have them gold plated.

Let's not forget that if employers treated their employees with respect in the first place, there would be no need for unions.

Fail.

As I asked before, what exactly was the problem? You couldn't answer it then, and you can't answer it now.

The problem is that the Union leaders think that Obama is going to back out of his original promises he made to the Unions.