Get In Their Faces: Administration Lashes Out at John Deere, Caterpillar For Accurately Reporting Their Finances

If John Deere and Caterpillar are to be screamed at for accurately noting their balance sheets post-ObamaCare, what is the president's preferred action? Falsifying their books?

The White House political and legislative operations were said to be livid with the announcement by several large U.S. companies that they were taking multi-million or as much as a billion dollar charges because of the new health-care law, the issue was front-and-center with key lawmakers. By last Friday, AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co., and AK Steel Holding Corp. had all announced that they were taking the one-time charges on their first-quarter balance sheets. More companies were expected to make similar announcements this week.

"These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general," says a White House legislative affairs staffer. "Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative websites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS."

In what way is it BS?

On Friday White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett were calling the CEOs and Washington office heads of the companies that took the financial hits and attacked them for doing so. One Washington office head said that the White House calls were accusatory and "downright rude."

Obama's also hopping mad that insurance companies have the audacity to note he sloppily drafted his Multi-Trillion-Dollar Abortion and that kids with pre-existing conditions are not, in fact, required to be insured.

Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the “availability of coverage” for all until 2014.

William G. Schiffbauer, a lawyer whose clients include employers and insurance companies, said: “The fine print differs from the larger political message. If a company sells insurance, it will have to cover pre-existing conditions for children covered by the policy. But it does not have to sell to somebody with a pre-existing condition. And the insurer could increase premiums to cover the additional cost.”

Congressional Democrats were furious when they learned that some insurers disagreed with their interpretation of the law.

A year ago, Obama threatened to call out executives who kicked up a fuss over his policies. But he had a hell of a lot more political juice, then. I don't think CEOs are particularly frightened now at being called out by an unpopular president.

posted by Ace at 05:37 PM

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