Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks said today on CNBC....

[busterbrown]

That the Health Care act has had some “unintended consequences on small business owners”
He didn’t mention any, but I’d like to know specifics so I can prepare myself for arguments with some of my few right wing friends.... Thanks..

[RedstDem]

1. dont know about small buisness

but I remember it will add around 11 to 14 cents per pizza at papa johns......

[hopemountain]

2. probably the costs of healthcare insurance premiums for

employers and employees - which are sky high. not really the fault of the health care act - but the greedy health care insurance carriers and providers, i.e. the for-humongous-profit private hospitals, labs, specialists, providers, etc.

[busterbrown]

3. Don’t they receive tax credits?? n/t

[hopemountain]

7. a credit

is not always a "refund" and requires: 1. long form itemized deductions at the end of the tax year, usually someone must be paid to process the tax form; 2. waiting for the refund if there is indeed one; 3. most seniors live month to month with minimal or no expendable income beyond basic living expenses not including exorbitant medical copays + premiums.

its been awhile since i have used the itemized deduction tax form but this was my experience during my husband's past illness 1997-2002.

[Yavin4]

4. CNBC, The Channel Where Super-Rich Assholes Go To Whine about how awful Obama is n/t

[Chan790]

5. As a former Starbucks barista and later manager.

Howard Schultz may be a coffee genius but in other matters he's kind of an idiot. Talks about coffee as his passion, then makes a deal with Pepsico that is destroying the underpinnings of what made Starbucks successful in coffee.

Success came too easy for him so rather than sticking with what made him successful...a commitment to doing things the right way and bucking the "common knowledge" of the do-nothing corporate-class...he's assimilated to the failed thinking of the same sorts of people his success came from not following.

Shakespeare had it wrong. It's not the lawyers we need to worry about. Kill all the MBAs!

[DonCoquixote]

6. what is sad is

Starbucks came into being because we had a MIDDLE CLASS that wanted to spend on cofffe, as well as the overall feel of a comfrtbale area to talk and hear jazzy music. Because the CEOS want the whole pie, they are starving the people who bake it for them. Ask Walmart why their profits went down, it was because their own employees could not affordto shop there.

And if these CEOS think the Asians will take up the slack, they are wrong, because Beijing and New delhi will glaldy replace the CEOS themselves...saldy with people who already are used to the idea of treating people like dirt.

[hedgehog]

8. When the Health Care Act makes insurance more affordable for more people,

expect to see a boom in people going out to build their own small business.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Is he saying Starbucks is a small business operation?

[otohara]

10. Nah...He Put Small Coffee Shops Out of Business

all around the world. Wasn't that their goal - put a Starbucks across the street from a local business.

Why would he give a rats ass about small business?

[Hekate]

11. I seriously doubt it. He doesn't have to make it all about him.

[Hekate]

12. I'm confused by the response-posts here. Starbucks has earned a rep as a good employer

Unless things have changed quite recently, Starbucks, along with Trader Joe's and Costco, are all known for paying above minimum wage and giving good benefits to even their part-time workers.

Whatever his comment was meant to convey, I am sure it was not meant to imply that Starbucks corporation is a "small business" because that would be ludicrous.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. Nearly every policy hurts somebody, that's not a reason not to do it

This is basically the Joe the Plumber argument. If there exists an anecdotal example of a small businessperson who is hurt by a particular policy be it health care, minimum wage, or tax increases, then the bill must be a job killer and so it shouldn't be implemented.

But choosing whether or not to implement policy based on anecdotes is silly. The way to truly assess the situation is to determine roughly how many jobs will be lost and weigh that against the cost to businesses of whatever policy you want to implement. And the fact of the matter is that Obamacare, a small minimum wage hike, and a tax increase on the wealthy, simply don't have a huge impact on the job numbers.