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Very few respondents to a Manatee Chamber of Commerce online survey seem to have much of a grasp of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly referred to as Obamacare.
The survey question asks, “How well do you understand the new health care law?” The current leader is “Know very little” at 44.4%, and 27.8% are honest enough to admit they “Don't have a clue.” So nearly three out of four are pretty much in the dark about it four months after it became the law of the land.
Of course, a low Obamacare IQ is understandable — it is a 2,400-page law that few have read, including many in Congress who voted for it.
Still, 16.7% of those taking the survey responded that they “Know enough to be comfortable.”
Coffee Talk's simple response: Really?
They must all be accountants and auditors. After all, they'll be the ones keeping track of the 18 different taxes the law imposes on various corporations, health care plans and businesses in general.
Four of those taxes kick in this year, and as we pointed out in our May 7 “Government Watch” story (“Back-Breaking Medicine”), beginning in 2012, all businesses will be mandated to send in Corporate 1099-MISC forms for every business-to-business transaction of $600 or more — which really has nothing to do with health care.
Private accounting and auditing firms look to be the next growth industry. They'll get to wrestle with the 16,500 IRS auditors and other government employees estimated to be needed to collect the $503 billion in projected Obamacare tax revenue during the next 10 years.
Yet the Obama administration and the majority in Congress can't seem to figure out why businesses are reluctant to hire.
Maybe they should take a look at a recent online poll by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, asking if the federal government “should do more” or if it's “doing too many things.”
It's no surprise to Coffee Talk that 83.6% say the federal government is doing too much. Ya' think?
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