Companies must swear to the IRS why they are firing people

ObamaCare mandate delayed again

For the second time, the White House has announced plans to delay implementation of ObamaCare so that employers won’t be slapped with a fine next year if they fail to offer their workers health insurance. Regulations require that employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees won’t have to comply with the law’s requirement to provide insurance or choose a fee until 2016.

Companies with over 99 employees could avoid penalties in 2015 if they proved they were covering at least 70 percent of their full-time workers. The delay came after the Obama administration was pressured by employers to address the requirements, cutting many workers’ hours to under 30 hours per week to avoid the penalty.

Some criticize the companies for cutting staff and cutting hours, others call it an inevitable outcome of the bill.

Enter the 1984 references…

But there’s a portion of the requirements that is not being addressed, as brought up by political writer, Chris Stirewalt who writes, “Is the latest delay of ObamaCare regulations politically motivated? Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law.”

Stirewalt added, “Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.”

The move is being labeled as a 1984-esque move, laden with Thought Police implications, and others believe that employers are being greedy by firing people to avoid ObamaCare costs. Tell us in comments what you think.