Speaking on the Senate floor, Bond stressed that the bill being debated in the Senate does nothing to address the healthcare needs of small businesses and their employees. Rather, the bill increases healthcare costs, imposes new mandates and taxes on small businesses, and will further delay an economic recovery.

 

“Small businesses drive this economy. They are also the sector most in need of real health reform that will reduce costs and make it easier to buy insurance. It is estimated that more than 26 million of the uninsured are small business owners, employees and their dependents. That’s a majority of the uninsured. Unfortunately, the Democratic healthcare bills that we have seen so far – and I guess we haven’t seen all of them – won’t help.

 

“If we really want to get out of this recession, if we really want to address the problems of affordable and accessible health insurance, the majority party needs to take a hard look at its healthcare reform bill. Instead of proposing commonsense healthcare solutions for small business this bill heaps new costly financial burdens on small businesses trying to keep their doors opening during these hard economic times. More and more it seems small businesses are under attack from the majority and this administration.”

 

“This bill requires a costly $28 billion new mandate on businesses that do not offer healthcare. Who pays for this mandate? Anyone looking for a job. Why? If you tell a business they have to spend big money on a mandate, they cannot spend that money hiring new workers.

 

“The new taxes would eliminate roughly half of my profits,” said Randy Angst, owner of Bailey’s TV Inc. in Lebanon, Missouri. “It would force me to let employees go, refrain from hiring new employees and prevent me from reinvesting in my business. The mandates would be very harmful and make it much more costly for me to operate my business.”

 

“We are in a recession and I am in manufacturing,” said Gene Schwartz, owner of K & S Wire Products in Neosho, Missouri. “This legislation would be nothing but detrimental to us. Our workforce is already down 25 percent from last year and if this bill goes through in its current form, the new taxes and mandates will force me to make further cuts. Also, this bill will increase my costs by further raising my already sky-high insurance premiums.”