Fitzpatrick: Obamacare hurting local business

      Representative Mike Fitzpatrick invested most of his efforts this week towards addressing several national issues, specifically emphasizing the damage they are causing to his district's local businesses and their employees.  No law is more guilty of this than President Obama's new healthcare law, which Fitzpatrick calls "a misguided effort that divides Americans on a common goal (affordable world-class healthcare)...as opposed to bringing us together to rise to the challenges we face."  Within the above article, Fitzpatrick goes on to spell out many of the shortcomings of "Obamacare" that he is referring to:  30 million currently uninsured Americans will remain uninsured, while the law "will also create countless newly uninsured Americans," including 500,000 children that will no longer be covered under their parents' plans. 
     At a more local level, Fitzpatrick highlights the immediate effects the law is having on businesses in his district, such as the Sesame Place amusement park.  The Affordable Care Act was designed to secure heathcare for employees, by punishing companies that failed to meet the standards set by the law.  However, the unforeseen consequences of this law are actually hurting employees in many cases more than they help them.  Companies are of course seeking ways to get around the requirements of the law: in the case of Sesame Place, this means "cutting the hours for part-time employees" to keep them below the 30 hour per week threshold set by the law.  While Sesame is a particularly powerful local example (it employs over 1,600 people and creates $75 million in revenue per year for Bucks County, according to Philly.com), this is a trend that many fear businesses nationwide will follow.   

     Much like Fitzpatrick's stance on Syria, he cites a lack of information as a primary reason the law needs to be delayed.  "Sparse information and little guidance have led to more confusion- even with millions of tax dollars being spent on advertising."   Thus, Fitzpatrick believes it necessary to postpone the law for at least a year.  While the Republican stance on Obamacare has already been made crystal clear (having voted against it a whopping 41 times already), they realize that completely repealing it is far from likely.  However, if they could buy time, which is what Fitzpatrick is attempting to do, it would allow for local businesses to better prepare themselves to meet the new requirements the law will set, as well as allow the public to become more educated regarding the law in general.  Perhaps as more information about the law comes out, it will become less and less popular.  But, for now at least, Fitzpatrick is simply calling for the temporary postponement of the law, to further his party's national agenda, while also protecting the workers and businesses of his constituency.