Farm equipment manufacturers take deep hits from ObamaCare

posted at 1:36 pm on March 25, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

Caterpillar announced last week that it would take a $100 million hit from the mandates in ObamaCare, and yesterday, they made it official.  As a publicly-traded firm, Caterpillar had to reveal the major change to its financial standing to its investors:

Caterpillar Inc. said Wednesday it will take a $100 million charge to earnings this quarter to reflect additional taxes stemming from newly enacted U.S. health-care legislation.

The world’s largest construction equipment manufacturer by sales, warned last week that provisions in the legislation would subject the company to federal income taxes on the subsidies it receives for providing prescription drug benefits for its retirees and their spouses. …

The charge is expected to be a one-time cost, but Caterpillar has argued that higher taxes and other potential cost increases related to insurance coverage mandates in the legislation will hinder the company’s recovery this year after a 75% plunge in income during 2009.

“From our point of view, a tax increase like this cannot come at a worse time,” said Jim Dugan, a Caterpillar spokesman.

As it happens, Caterpillar isn’t alone, not even among its competitors.  In fact, the massive charge actually amounts to less than what John Deere had to announce today:

Farm equipment maker Deere expects after-tax expenses to rise by $150 million this year as a result of the health care reform law President Barack Obama signed this week.

Most of the higher expense will come in Deere’s [DE  60.94    0.45  (+0.74%)   ] second quarter, the company said on Thursday. The expense was not included in the company’s earlier 2010 forecast, which called for net income of about $1.3 billion. …

The law could raise expenses for large U.S. employers. Industrial companies, which typically have large numbers of retirees, may be among those facing the biggest bill. Caterpillar had argued before the legislation passed that health reform would put it at a disadvantage against global competitors.

Now we have two American-based manufacturers that suddenly have a quarter of a billion dollars less capital than they did on Saturday.  That’s just two companies.  How much more capital will that grab from American businesses?  We’ll start seeing it in their financial disclosures soon enough, and it will run into the tens of billions of dollars, perhaps more.

Some may say, Well, great!  It pays for ObamaCare. It also takes the cash that would have fueled expansion, new job creation, and retirement income and sticks it into the hands of government bureaucrats.  It will massively bleed the economy at a point in time where we desperately need the private sector to invest in itself and create new jobs and new opportunities.

Instead, those manufacturing jobs will simply go outside the US.  If John Deere or Caterpillar doesn’t move them overseas, then foreign manufacturers will take up the slack instead.  There would have been no good time for ObamaCare, but this is the absolutely worst time of all to impose these backbreaking taxes on the private sector.  Expect unemployment to remain high, and perhaps even go higher, as a result of Congress’ work.

Let’s not forget who told us that we could discover much about America’s bottom line by looking at Caterpillar’s bottom line, after all:

John Deere’s too.

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Comment pages: 1 2 3

It also takes the cash that would have fueled expansion, new job creation, and retirement income and sticks it into the hands of government bureaucrats.
You’d almost think that’s one of the reasons they passed it.

Daggett on March 25, 2010 at 2:03 PM

-It’s a non-cash charge at this point. It will have a cash impact in 2013 when the tax change kicks in assuming they continue the subsidies.

So, on this issue, once they’ve taken the hit they’ll have no further financial impact.
How reassuring. After all, what’s $150 million?

DrSteve on March 25, 2010 at 2:00 PM

–Time Warner took roughly a $60 billion non-cash charge related to the AOL acquisition. It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

By design….just ‘spreading the wealth around’.

Asher on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

It’s getting awfully close to 3 bucks a gallon here in H-Town(Houston for the non-Texan).

Doughboy on March 25, 2010 at 2:04 PM

Free horse for you!
Come & get it (ND)!

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

And it’s a LONG TERM study. No jobs as of yet.

journeyintothewhirlwind on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

Dear Liar isn’t the next Lenin or Stalin or Mussolini or Hitler or Mao or Kim. He’s the next Pol Pot!
Change!

rbj on March 25, 2010 at 2:03 PM

Soon, it will be the year zero!

capejasmine on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

Oh. OK. So if the business can afford the tax, then it’s ok to steal their $$.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 1:58 PM

Good lord, what a gasbag you are.

Knucklehead on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

Little did we know that when Obama said he was focusing on jobs like a laser he really meant focusing on job losses the health care bill would produce.

HAHAHAHA Jokes on us.

jukin on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:00 PM

I watched a lot of the tractors go down the road when they rolled into Washington D.C. in the late 70′s as a protest.

yoda on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 1:52 PM

I can’t say. The only thing I know about tractors is some girl thinks Kenny Chesney is sexy because he drives one. :p

ladyingray on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

Please ignore it. PLEASE!

It is AnninCa… male version.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

What do the farmers say?

Del Dolemonte on March 25, 2010 at 2:08 PM

I send these stories with a note of “thanks” to my Congressman. I don’t bother with my senators (Stabenow and Levin) as there is no chance in hell either will lose their seats. My congressman is a freshman dem in a republican leaning district. I like to send little reminders that his likely to lose his seat in November.

evie on March 25, 2010 at 2:08 PM

–Time Warner took roughly a $60 billion non-cash charge related to the AOL acquisition. It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

There’s a difference between “bad business decision-making” and “being forced into a wealth redistribution scheme”.

venividivici on March 25, 2010 at 2:09 PM

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

Speaking of gasbags, Obama is at the podium in front of his sycophants.

kingsjester on March 25, 2010 at 2:10 PM

New government program….Cash for Mules

PatriotRider on March 25, 2010 at 2:10 PM

I watched a lot of the tractors go down the road when they rolled into Washington D.C. in the late 70’s as a protest.

yoda on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

Remember that like yesterday…

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Dear Liar isn’t the next Lenin or Stalin or Mussolini or Hitler or Mao or Kim. He’s the next Pol Pot!
Change!

rbj on March 25, 2010 at 2:03 PM

I’m still hopeful that he is the next Mussolini, who, as we know, made Italy an economic powerhouse and a bastion of liberty and who retired to some nice beachfront property on the island of Sicily, where he ran a vineyard, producing some of the regions best wines and whom, for his service to mankind, is revered to this day.

justltl on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Hobbie farmers are going to be the real farmers here soon.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:02 PM

They’re screwed in many ways too.
They’re trying to regulate locally produced milk.
And the government is just trying to regulate all local farm products in general, to death.
Soon, you will not even be able to buy produce from Amish people or even from your neighbor’s garden.
It is insane.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Little did we know that when Obama said he was focusing on jobs like a laser he really meant focusing on job losses the health care bill would produce.

HAHAHAHA Jokes on us.

jukin on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

In fairness, it was probably incumbent upon us to read between the lines. “Lasers” do destroy things, after all. We stupid teabaggers should have realized that’s what he meant.

venividivici on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Now we have two American-based manufacturers that suddenly have a quarter of a billion dollars less capital than they did on Saturday.

Who would have guessed that “change” really meant pennies and quarters.

highhopes on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

–What they’ll probably decide to do is to stop the retiree subsidiaries.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 1:52 PM

Oh well that just makes it all better now don’t it!!! People who worked there whole lives are gonna get boned so you and people like you can have your gubmint hand out…

SHARPTOOTH on March 25, 2010 at 1:57 PM

–Almost all companies never made irrevocable or unchangable retiree health commitments to their salaried employees. This subsidy came about in connection with the expanded retiree drug plan under Medicare under Bush. Almost all companies then dropped their retiree medical plans for people who were Medicare eligible (which helped their balance sheet) but many decided to offer a much less costly drug subsidy as part of that to make the dropping of the retiree medical plan more palatable to employees.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

When Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, congress tried to say that it would overall only cost companies @ 80K to comply. I know of companies that it cost more than 5Mill to comply, and this was a small company. And so when they say that obamacare travesty will only cost a trillion or less, plan on it costing companies and individuals @ 500 trillion

ConservativePartyNow on March 25, 2010 at 2:12 PM

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

You are right, of course. Starve it.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:12 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Please ignore it. PLEASE!

It is AnninCa… male version.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

-Why? Are you scared of me?

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Awesome. Two companies from my industry, in Obama’s home state, are going to lose more than $200mm. Hope. Change. F***ing expensive food.

Flyover Country on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Please ignore it. PLEASE!

It is AnninCa… male version.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:07 PM

As of today, I am considering it. Lawyers are rediculously insane.
But then, they are the very same people who have been writing all the bills & tying up our courts that have ruined this country.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Brat on March 25, 2010 at 1:49 PM

Yeah, it’s housed next to the Ministry of Funny Walks.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 1:45 PM

Your’s won’t be. And if you were thinking of working at Cat, well, they won’t be hiring for a while. And that “contemplating” news release is probably being re-contemplated right now.

BarryO and his MerryDems didn’t give 2 seconds of thought to all the fallout that will occur over the next few years leading up to the so-called benefit phase. Ed, and many more, are correct, the trashed economy just went into the heap.

Robert17 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Several years ago, someone wanted to put in a strip mall in a wooded area. Because of the rough terrain, they hired a man with two mules to haul out the trees. The animal rights folks complained but the man who owned the mules explained that mules can’t stay healthy unless they’re working.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Many people here buy their produce from roadside stands or the back of pickups in the summer.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

I think the First Communist Lady has proven that you can feed thousands from a small vegetable garden behind your mansion. The need for these CO2 spewing contraptions is highly overrated. Once the internment camps for the racist, violent tea people are constructed, their forced manual labor will take the place of the fat cats making machines and profit.

Hening on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

Verizon to ObaMao, “Can you hear me now?”

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Let’s see if you can answer a simple question without spinning:

Are these companies indicating by this “charge” that Obamacare impacts their business value and profitability?

Will that make it more or less likely they will retain or expand their labor pools?

cs89 on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

If you like your John Deere, you can keep your Johb Deere.

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:16 PM

Why? Are you scared of me?

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

N she’s not Jimbo.
But I know where she’s coming from.
You see, I work with a woman who I tried to have intelligent debates with.
But eventually, it became tiring as it was the same old thing.
In the end, you espouse a view of this country that our founders NEVER intended (I got that idea from reading stuff like the Constitution & the Federalist papers) & I espouse ideas in line with the founders of our country.
But then again, to some, they are just a bunch of old stupid racist out of date thinking bigots who created a document that epopel love to shred.
The Constitution was meant to be a STATIC document.
It can never be outdated or go out of style, no matter what modern society invents or how it changes.
Some stuff really is black & white.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:16 PM

Verizon to ObaMao, “Can you hear me now?”

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

+1
Verizon is actually his Crackberry provider.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:17 PM

-Why? Are you scared of me?

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Petrified.

KinleyArdal on March 25, 2010 at 2:17 PM

Mr. President and his masters of disasters strike again! Dastards.

scalleywag on March 25, 2010 at 2:17 PM

Who needs a John Deere or a Caterpiller vehicle when you have a hammer and sickle?

Wander on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 1:45 PM

Whether or not it’s a one time disclosure (I don’t believe it is — such a tax continues until it sunsets or the flow of generated retirees cease), the fact is that companies commonly factor in the cost of manufacture in a given locale when determining which plants they ought to close. That includes the rate of generation of retirees. If Caterpiller wants to cut costs over the long run, they merely have to decrease the rate of generation of American retirees. That doesn’t contribute to a “warm and fuzzy” feeling on my part.

If I were Caterpiller, I’d be looking at every way I can decrease costs and hence deliver more profit per unit sold.

Finally, press release on 11 March doesn’t reflect the reality of what just happened, Jimbo. There’s a variable in the equation called “date” and historical events happening before “date” affect outcomes, while those happening after “date” do not. So if Caterpiller was planning an expansion, they’ve got to be reconsidering that based on what just happened.

As others have pointed out, payroll taxes on American companies make them less productive when compared to foreign firms not equivalently burdened.

unclesmrgol on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

Many people here buy their produce from roadside stands or the back of pickups in the summer.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Not for long, or did you forget about this? Fight for Your Farmer’s Market!

Knucklehead on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

Many people here buy their produce from roadside stands or the back of pickups in the summer.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Best sweetcorn in the country comes from a little lady on Harrison street every year. She makes damn good pies, too.

….I can’t wait for harvest.

KinleyArdal on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

their forced manual labor will take the place of the fat cats making machines and profit.

Hening on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

Honestly, who needs machines when you can use Gulag labor.
Just ask the Russians about that canal to nowhere that was built off the backs of Gulag slaves.
Or the precious metals that were mined by the Gulag slaves.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

Many people here buy their produce from roadside stands or the back of pickups in the summer.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Perhaps not for long. Either that, or people will have to buy it on the black agriculture market.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:19 PM

Not for long, or did you forget about this? Fight for Your Farmer’s Market!

Knucklehead on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

Ugggh. Actually, I did forget about that.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:20 PM

So Jimbo, this is good news, right?

Chuck Schick on March 25, 2010 at 2:20 PM

And people wonder why I am saving seeds, getting together things in a neat and orderly fashion, buying items for protection.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:20 PM

Rush just said “Obamacare Bill is a miracle”. Well now I feel a lot better.

Dire Straits on March 25, 2010 at 2:20 PM

-Why? Are you scared of me?
Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Wrong verb, Counselor. Tired is the word you were seeking.

kingsjester on March 25, 2010 at 2:20 PM

Perhaps not for long. Either that, or people will have to buy it on the black agriculture market.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:19 PM

I will trade you 30 lbs rhubarb for 200 ears of corn!

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:21 PM

This subsidy came about in connection with the expanded retiree drug plan under Medicare under Bush

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:11 PM

Boooooooooooosh….I knew you couldn’t resist….lol…What a loooooosr!!!

SHARPTOOTH on March 25, 2010 at 2:21 PM

Boooooooooooosh….I knew you couldn’t resist….lol…What a loooooosr!!!

SHARPTOOTH on March 25, 2010 at 2:21 PM

Did I not predict on this thread that it was Bush’s fault?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM

We all need to become Henny-pennys

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM

I will trade you 30 lbs rhubarb for 200 ears of corn!

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:21 PM

I only ‘grow’ meat. How bout some of those giant cabbages, gold, & a few diamonds that AK is so famous for, for some prime grass fed BEEF?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:24 PM

I think the First Communist Lady has proven that you can feed thousands from a small vegetable garden behind your mansion.

Hening on March 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

What Mrs. Obama is advocating may be illegal. See filburn v. wickard. Nowadays a farm is defined as any person growing more than $1,000.00 worth of food per year which is sold or which could have been sold in interstate commerce.

unclesmrgol on March 25, 2010 at 2:24 PM

Isn’t it likely that most of these companies will simply discontinue the retiree Rx benefit, dumping those people back on the Medicare drug benefit? I understand Republicans asked the CBO to budget for such an outcome, but Dems refused. So there goes another ding to Obama’s “budget”.

Also, recall that “Reinsurance” provision in the bill. It provides $10 BILLION to union retiree health plans. And it specifies that the subsidy will be NON-TAXED!

Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Oh, and ask me if I’m thrilled that my tax dollars are going to pay for Cadillac union plans for retirees as young as 55 years old!

jeanneb on March 25, 2010 at 2:25 PM

Many people here buy their produce from roadside stands or the back of pickups in the summer.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

Dan Rather: Obama “couldn’t sell watermelons by the side of the road if he had state troopers stopping traffic.”

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:25 PM

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:25 PM

Mmmmm, watermelon

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:27 PM

Who needs a John Deere or a Caterpiller vehicle when you have a hammer and sickle?
Wander on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

10000+

yoda on March 25, 2010 at 2:27 PM

Did I not predict on this thread that it was Bush’s fault?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM

Yes you did….:)

SHARPTOOTH on March 25, 2010 at 2:27 PM

I will trade you 30 lbs rhubarb for 200 ears of corn!

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:21 PM

What’s the rhubarb to corn exchange rate today?

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

Not for long, or did you forget about this? Fight for Your Farmer’s Market!

Knucklehead on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

That’s a good article too, Knuckle.
Us ag folks have been seeing this coming for a long time.
Course I’ve been crowing about ag problems here for a while.
Our agriculture sector has been, & still is in trouble my fellow HA friends.
It’s either big AG (taking tons of $$ in gov subsidies) who are consolidating into giant monopolies (i.e. where does your meat come from?) or the death tax killing the family farm.
Family farms are efficient. More efficient than any in the whole world.
But through govt intrusion in some areas, & the govt not enforcing the law in others, we have come to this point in our food.
What will happen my friends if a food ‘factory’ where masses of food are produced or moved through goes down somehow?
How will your grocery shelves be stocked?
What if they delay in shipments, for whatever reason, is for weeks?
Months?
What will you do for food?!
Stock up my friends & be prepared if it happens.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM


Time Warner took roughly a $60 billion non-cash charge related to the AOL acquisition. It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

You are a very disnonest person. You lie like Obama. The “one time non cash charge” is from writing down blue sky values in stock from the acquisition storm. John Deere is paying CASH for insurance. It is not a “non cash charge”

You think like the Enron management. Is Enron in business?

seven on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:24 PM

umm giant guiness cabaage are not edible. But I can get you some 5 -10 lbs heads if you want (later this summer) and the gold.. well, I will see. I have my panning equipment up and running for this summer.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM

What’s the rhubarb to corn exchange rate today?

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

I got enough rhubarb.
What I want is a new computer.
I’ll trade meat for a new computer.
Any takers?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM

–Time Warner took roughly a $60 billion non-cash charge related to the AOL acquisition. It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM

LOL. A commercial enterprise took a hit for its own bad business deal. To compare that to a charge resulting from a government diktat is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.

You’re f***ing stupid. Maybe you see the analogy, but I assure you that it’s not there.

Moron.

BuckeyeSam on March 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM

What’s the rhubarb to corn exchange rate today?

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

we can’t grow corn… but rhubarb is called the alaska apple.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:30 PM

Good Lord, please help us.

Key West Reader on March 25, 2010 at 2:30 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM

whole cow for a net book????

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:30 PM

Quarter of a billion gone from 2 companies – what will investors do as they realize that every company they have invested in is going to lose capital like this?

journeyintothewhirlwind on March 25, 2010 at 2:30 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

It’s also states like Alabama not hiring new ag extension specialists and not filling positions in the dept. created by retirees.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:31 PM

I have my panning equipment up and running for this summer.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:29 PM

I didn’t know that about the cabbages! Wah!
LOL! My hubby wanted to pan for gold so bad in the Black Hills a coupla years back in French Creek.
I told him he wouldn’t find much, if any but he was determined.
So we brought the gold pans & panned for hours & lo & behold!
He got a panful of pretty little garnets!
LMAO!

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:31 PM

new ag extension specialists and not filling positions in the dept. created by retirees.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:31 PM

I heard on the local news this morning in ND that the extension agencies aren’t going to get the funding they did in years past.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Can pork & beef be canned?
If so, how long will it last?

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Who needs a John Deere or a Caterpiller vehicle when you have a hammer and sickle?

Wander on March 25, 2010 at 2:18 PM

ZING!

scalleywag on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Can pork & beef be canned?
If so, how long will it last?

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

yes
years is canned right

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Putting on my accounting hat, I believe this would be a “pension payable” and some kind of expense. This would result in an immediate hit to the balance sheet and income statement, even though the cash would be paid out over time in the future.

If every company that has a significant retiree population has to do this, it would result in an immediate decrease in equity of these companies. And the total is supposed to be in the billions?

Let me know if that seems accurate. The next question becomes what do these businesses do about this situation.

phillypolitics on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

whole cow for a net book????

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:30 PM

No net book. Desktop-2.7 Ghz etc. w/ a 16″ flat screen.
Let’s see… a whole cow runs now about,uh, $600-800 depending.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:33 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:33 PM

Can’t blame a girl for trying.

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:34 PM

I heard on the local news this morning in ND that the extension agencies aren’t going to get the funding they did in years past.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

I manage the Alabamacrops.com site and the Beef Cattle Improvement site. My job falls under the Ag Extension dept. but is funded by grants from the ag councils, not the state.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:36 PM

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

When we were tearing down a house in the seventies, we found a huge stash of canned veg’s my grandma put up during WWII in a boarded up cellar.
We ate them and no one died…

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:36 PM

Can pork & beef be canned?
If so, how long will it last?

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM
yes
years is canned right

upinak on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Oh yes & is extremely tasty.
In fact, I bet if you canned a dog turd, it would probably taste good.
Omaha- I can lots of our meat including pheasants we get from the ‘yard’.
Even old freezer burned meat can be saved by canning it.
It is quite simply, awesome stuff.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:37 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

The state’s not funding any new hires.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM

We ate them and no one died…

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:36 PM

I heard once of some peaches & other items being found in a house that were over a 100 yrs old.
They ate them & was supposedly great.
I wonder if it’s an urbal legend or truth, though.

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM

Let’s sock it to those greedy capitalists farmers. What I want food is is a right, and anything that helps nationalize and control we the people the poor makes me feel smug and important warm and fuzzy.

Laura in Maryland on March 25, 2010 at 2:40 PM

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM

I hope your job will still be around. :)

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:40 PM

Laura in Maryland on March 25, 2010 at 2:40 PM

As Russian gulag-era history tells me,it was the farmers that Stalin did come after to nationalize food production.
And gee, I wonder what happened then?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:41 PM

The next question becomes what do these businesses do about this situation.

phillypolitics on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

Seems obvious to me: they’ll drop the coverage. The only reason they still offer it is the federal subsidy. Without that, they would have dumped retirees on Medicare’s Rx program when it was adopted 6 years ago. Congress only gave them the subsidy to avoid an avalanche of new enrolees.

Now Congress is renegging on the deal. It’s almost as if Congress WANTS those retirees back under the Medicare umbrella. One more step to single-payer.

jeanneb on March 25, 2010 at 2:42 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:40 PM

Thanks. I’m covered.

AubieJon on March 25, 2010 at 2:42 PM

AubieJon-do the ag councils that fund you get fed $$?
Or is it like checkoff $$?

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:42 PM

Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Badger40 on March 25, 2010 at 2:38 PM

Dad never did tell us why he walled up all his mother’s produce.

I just learned to can stuff last year, after 0 took office. It seemed like a prudent thing to learn.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:45 PM

Hey Badger- my husband builds computers, and can make you up a nice little number. We love grass fed beef.

Kristamatic on March 25, 2010 at 2:45 PM

Can pork & beef be canned?
If so, how long will it last?

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:32 PM

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/canningmeat

Jason Coleman on March 25, 2010 at 2:46 PM

Caterpillar is citing two problems: 1) the upfront cost, and, 2) the unknown infrastructure cost to overhead due to medical reform.

A company that has lost sales and income absorbing a large hit during a prolonged recession is very different from a bad expansion decision made by a prosperous company during a relative boom time. Thus the AOL deal is not equivalent to what Caterpillar is having to do: one is voluntary, the other not.

That is bad enough as it is, but the only way to run a business is to try and get those fixed costs out of the system as fast as possible. The longer-term concern are the unknown structural cost to finances, that affects the long-term viability of the company. While offering some reduced medical benefits is a savings, that will now be put at peril due to the various parts of the legislation just past that have not been fully implemented or looked at. And as no economic recovery is on the horizon, any structural cost change due to medical coverage is one that does impact comptetativeness and ability to make a profit so that it can expand. As we increase the number of eligible working age individuals and decrease viability of companies to expand production there is a long-term concern about the fiscal reasoning behind such long-term decisions.

As an example the SSA was proposed in ’34 (if memory serves) along with many other New Deal programs, but the actual taxation part didn’t arrive until ’37-’38. Between ’34 and ’37 the economy was pulling itself out of the Depression and production would hit pre-depression era levels in ’37-’38. The structural form of the taxation caused problems with companies and the recession happening starting in ’38-’39 can be attributed to the increased ‘benefits’ via New Deal programs and the taxes that went with them. It is telling tha prior to 1942 the New Deal had not gotten unemployment below the pre-1929 levels or just into single digits. In the midst of a recovery the structural changes would prove of negative benefit to the economy and those seeking employment and prolong the Great Depression.

I cannot sublimely say that a ‘one-time’ write off with preparation for a structural economic change that is unknown is a good thing. Quite the opposite, history demonstrates that this is a negative factor for recovery. The ‘write-off’ is due to the involuntary nature of the changes in the tax system that this ‘reform’ brings with it, but the full extent of the changes have not been properly digested by anyone. Not in Congress, not in the IRS, not in the business world, not amongst the punditry. It is very difficult to ‘reform’ a highly complex system by leveraging more complexity into with unknown variables with unknown outcomes. It is at that point you need to reduce complexity, not increase it, as the system itself will act in asymmetrical ways due to the complexities involved. By adding more regulation with unknowns attached to it a system is made more fragile, more complex and more likely to fail, not less. And with the CBO having been gamed by the legislation, thus tying their hands on longer-term and wider analysis with probabilities attached, the entire piece of legislation is not serving its purpose of re-assuring anyone. Quite the opposite. History is a guide to that and it is difficult to demonstrate when large bureaucratic systems actually made an economic system more stable… save in authoritarian and totalitarian states, of course which is easy to analyze. Thus I am not sanguine of the outcomes in a Nation seeking to retain individual and corporate initiative as regulations and ‘reforms’ encroach ever more on the lives of individuals and their works.

ajacksonian on March 25, 2010 at 2:46 PM

I just learned to can stuff last year, after 0 took office. It seemed like a prudent thing to learn.

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:45 PM

I asked my investment advisor what I should be buying and he said, “Canned goods and ammo.”

mwdiver on March 25, 2010 at 2:48 PM

Time Warner took roughly a $60 billion non-cash charge

related to the AOL acquisition. It’s still in business.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:06 PM
You are a very disnonest person. You lie like Obama. The “one time non cash charge” is from writing down blue sky values in stock from the acquisition storm. John Deere is paying CASH for insurance. It is not a “non cash charge”

You think like the Enron management. Is Enron in business?

seven on March 25, 2010 at 2:28 PM

–Aah, no. If you read what I wrote, it’s a non-cash charge now. It only becomes a cash charge in about 3 years because of the additional taxes it will pay.

Jimbo3 on March 25, 2010 at 2:49 PM

Jason Coleman on March 25, 2010 at 2:46 PM

Awesome…

OmahaConservative on March 25, 2010 at 2:49 PM

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