It took two years to do it, but Barack Obama finally succeeded in getting Republicans and Democrats to reach across the aisle, join hands, and pass legislation which will help protect small businesses from the devastating effects...of Obamacare.
Buried deep inside the two thousand page healthcare bill which "had to be passed so we could see what's in it" was a provision forcing small businesses to file 1099 tax forms for every purchase they made over $600. Theoretically, this would have raised $17 billion for the government, which they desperately needed to make Obamacare's costs look manageable on paper.
Unfortunately, experts estimated that the new paperwork requirements would be so burdensome that 40% of small businesses would either have to close or layoff employees during a time of record unemployment.
Even the president, in his State of the Union address, agreed that this ridiculous provision had to go...although we fully expect him to now claim credit for the "jobs saved" by not instituting his own paperwork nightmare.
Still, we can't imagine that Mr. Obama is genuinely happy about this new, bipartisan agreement that someone should have checked "what's in it" before passing the healthcare bill.-
Readers, it's no joke. Here in the editorial offices of Hope n' Change, severe winter weather is causing rolling power outages which play hob (hob, we tell you!) with computer and Internet service.
Moreover, there's no guarantee that the next rolling power outage might not last a lot longer and prevent our posting an original cartoon on schedule. And if you're reading this, that's probably what happened.
Rest assured that Hope n' Change will be back as soon as possible with more pithy political commentary and painful (but constitutionally protected) puns!
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Yes, today is Groundhog Day! The day when Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his hole, takes a look around at the world, then lets us know whether or not things will be getting better anytime soon.
So when the groundhog pops his head up, just what is he going to see in this strange world of Hope n' Change? He'll see the fruits of the president's "engagement" policy as countries throughout the Mideast boil over with revolutionary fervor and an uncertain future. He'll hear a president who refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of our debt crisis, and plans to borrow even more money in the belief that solar shingle research will usher in a new age of 1950's Soviet-style greatness.
And the groundhog will learn that a federal judge has ruled that Obamacare is an unconstitutional power grab because it forces citizens to buy a government-designated product...and that the Obama administration has granted over 700 wink-wink nudge-nudge waivers to politically-connected groups (40% of whom are unions), despite Mr. Obama's declaration that the system will only work if everyone is forced to pay.
The groundhog will see that House Republicans can create and pass bills...but those bills will subsequently be killed by Harry Reid in the Senate, or with a single stroke of Barack Obama's veto pen, essentially meaning no substantive problems can be solved until after the 2012 elections.
All of which would explain why the groundhog might sigh deeply, retreat back into his hole, pick up a revolver, and...and...shoot the TV.
Wait - what did you think he did?
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