In Thursday night’s New Mexico U.S. Senate debate, Republican Heather Wilson shared a recent conversation she had with a worried businesswoman – and exposed her rival, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.
From the debate televised by KOB-4…
Wilson: “Congressman, Marilyn Anderson owns two Taco Bells in Farmington…She tells me that she’s been awake at night because she knows that, when this Health Care Act [ObamaCare] comes into effect next year, she’s going to have to lay off – or move to part-time at least 26 employees – to get down below that magic 50 number where she doesn’t have to provide health insurance.” …
“How should she lay off people because of the Health Care Act that you forced her to make these decisions about?”
That was how Wilson showed the human stakes of the vote cast in 2010 by Heinrich and the then-Democratic-controlled Congress for the massive $1 trillion federal health care insurance mandate. Wilson’s question elicited a revelatory answer from Heinrich, who puts his conception of government-mandated health care reform before the free-market struggles of small-business owners struggling to make payroll.
When Heinrich didn’t answer Wilson’s question to her satisfaction, she persisted.
Wilson: “…She’s got to lay off 26 people or put them back to part-time because of the Health Care Act [ObamaCare] that you passed, ‘cause there’s not enough profit in that 99 cent taco.”
Heinrich: “Well I think small businesses are critical, but so is people’s health care and people should have access to health care. …And if that means that I have to pay a $1.10 for a taco instead of 99 cents, then I’m gonna pay a $1.10 for a taco.”
If only it were that simple. Here’s a list of the many tax increases that ObamaCare will bring to businesses and families in New Mexico and across the country.
View the full debate here.
