Obamacare: An Obamanation

Economic Malpractice
True to his word, President Barack Obama promised Americans "health care reform." The only problem is, he never told them what form it would take, or rather, how many forms it will require.

Replete with 2,562*¹ pages, Obamacare will contribute as much to the defoliation of our planet as his hot air will to global warming. Aspens won't be the only trees quaking in our forests.

I wasn't able able to find just how many copies of the Health Care Plan were distributed to the Senate, Congress, or the Press and made available to anyone willing to put down their copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace*² , but that number pales in light of the paper that will be required for filing and accounting purposes.

The following question is often asked. Below that are the accepted calculations used by the paper industry.

How Much Paper Can Be Made From a Tree?

1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees

1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees

A "pallet" of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton. Therefore,

1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses .6 trees

1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets

1 ream (500 sheets) uses 6% of a tree (and those add up quickly!)

1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)

1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for newsmagazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees (7.68)

Recycled Paper Saves How Many Trees?

(1) Multiply the number of trees needed to make a ton of the kind of paper you're talking about (groundwood or freesheet), then

(2) multiply by the percent recycled content in the paper.

For example,

1 ton (40 cartons) of 30% postconsumer content copier paper saves 7.2 trees

1 ton of 50% postconsumer content copier paper saves 12 trees.

*¹ (It took one tree to make three full sets of the plan.)
*² (War and Peace is "only" 1500 pages long.)

Form 1099
It will be the accounting process that requires more and more paper work. Americans will be forced to spend countless, aggrivating hours completing, filing and transmitting endless reams of federal paperwork. All companies, from the large corporations to small neighborhood businesses, will be mandated to file an IRS Form 1099 for every piece of business on which they spend at least $600.

Currently Form 1099 applies only to independent contractors. BY 2012, this mandate will be extended to all sellers of goods and services - not just the self-employed, but all businesses - large and small.

You are probably wondering, 'What does all of this Form 1099 stuff and the IRS got to do with health care?' INDEED!

Alas, it is bureaucratic business in Washington as usual. It is the pitfall of a two-party system. Before Obama could force his health care reform on the American people, he had to satisfy the bottom-feeding Senators and members of Congress (Republicans and Democrats alike) and allow them to attach all sorts of riders before they would vote in approval.

In addition to food stuff, if a restaurant has to buy kitchen equipment, that establishment will have to fill out a Form 1099 for each vendor when the $600 threshold is reached. If business operations require travel, airline tickets and hotel rooms are subject to the same dollar amount.

Over the course of 10 years, $17 billion will be extracted from America's already anemic small businesses. Many of those small businesses will probably close as vendors start to deal with larger companies to cut down on the onerous paperwork.

Health Care
Perhaps on the last 62 pages of Obamacare there is actually the appearance of the words 'health care.'

Employers will have to evaluate their health care plans' affordability by calculating each employee's household income, not just the individual worker's wages. No doubt the onus will be on every employee to provide income declarations for their entire household.

This will force smaller business to drop health care plans altogether. (This is already happening.) This will force individuals to shop around for 'affordable' health insurance. Failure to do so, will result in penalties which will be assessed on additional Federal Income Tax forms.

Does this reek of an "Orwellian Big Brother?" Damn straight it does!

Did you know that by 2014, even our men and women in the active armed forces will be required to purchase their own health care? That's right, even those brave men and women who put their lives on the line for their country, will not receive health care from our government!

Health care reform? It's more like health care deformity!

What has Dr. Obama got to say on the matter?

"Take this and don't call me in the morning!"

№ 1974