>> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> thanks for joining us f a look at busine and finan in the washington region. it w was a w week of suspense and speculation, and in the end w have been leftft withh morore suspspense and speculaon. businesseses employees, and heth insurance providers hav to sort out t the next steps they need t take. as i found out after the decision was announced reaction

is still mixed. linda ouout works at a cancer support community. the ruling alleviates one reason she wakes up at night. >> worrying about whether my husband would not have treatment because we could not afford its and have to watch him die because he was not getting the comprehensive cancer treatment that he needed. >> there were a number of papatients who felt belief that they had a safety net under them. >> many small-business owners aree worrying this could be prohibitive the banks in small business person does not need one more thing they have to follow. >> polls show 61% of voters oppose all or part of the plan. >> it has not helped us at all. i have seen no have been bending

our company has to offer insurance to children up to 26 27 years old. >> general susan blumenthal insists coverage for all will help rein in costs. >> we spend twice as much on health care than any other nation in the world. >> many voters today say they agree they've been >> it is a very good thing for thehe amecan people p paying bank > >> will the economy still be healthy? we will try to get s some perspective on how this opinion will affect busins owners and the restf us.. joining us, thehe executive director of the national federati of small bubusiness karen harned. also peter morici, professor of international business at the university of maryland a and sahi kapurur ngressional reporter at "talklking points

memo." he made a statement on the show back in march. >> i think the chiefustice was aggressively questioning the administration. at the latter half of the oral argument, he expressed sympathy with the argument that the health care market is unique. it n needs to be treated in a unique way. we did not see that same kind of skepticism or questioning the in bangkok'syou and i satto of. >> i am notot a sreme court experts so i ended up cickened out and deferring to experts who said in the end it would be kennedy who would be the swing vote. i chicickene out.

you re right. what surised you? >> whatt was really surprising about his nal opinionon was how he did it. he decreed that mandate as affectively a tax. he completely sided with conservatives and said it is not validnder the commerce clause. >> many experts wte scathing opinions of their own, , saying ththat jusustice roberts rewrote the law in order to geto his opinion. >> i think there is an important distinction to be made. the letter of the law for political purposes democrats decided to call a penalty and not a tax. they wanted to keep presidident oba's promise not to raise taxes on t the middle class.

at the end of the day, ththe way it functions is a tax. you're not g going to be hauled in as a criminal. you just have tpay momore i xes > not doing something, you have to pay a fee. >> karen i want to turn toto you. first, take me back. whwhat does the nation federation of small business most object to in thelan? >> there were several things. first of all we had a problem with thendivididual mandate. we think thihis is a massive intrusn from the government into our les. in addition, t therereis the employer mandate that will fce you to pay significant find for

employees if you do not offer the insurance that the government wants you to offer ththem. there a tax that is only levieded on those plans that smsmall-business owners buy. they go to brokers and find a plan and they y buy it. the big companies will not have to pay the tax been that the unions will not have to pay this tax. as a resul that is going to increase tir cososts. at the end of the day they are doing what small business ownwners did not want. they are very concerned about increasingng costs to. >> we do not know whais going to do to the costs in the congressional budget office because they say they need more time to look at the opinion. >> the congressional b budget

office was very firm about what a cost and then as soon as it was passed, it became unfirm which raises serious questions about the political independencece of theirector. in maryland, we have no mandate but we have -- all insurancnce companies have to take all comers. >> i did not realize maryland also has a provision that you have to continue to allow children up until the age of 26. >> we have most of thee elements when it comes to obamacare. >> maryland is stilin business. >> are you going to l me finish? ryland right alongside virginia because of the growth in the federal sector hahad to raise taxes bause its costs are escalating out of control.

also its quite another thing for the whole country to have these insurance provisions and not a privileged state that has a guaranteed onomic base. out in theountry americann companies are paying $8,000 per employee for health care per person japan, it is about $4,000. those ar the countries that we compete with. ere ino r reason to belelieve th obamacare will reduce cost. i predict it will cause us the same kind of headaches that bankk reform caused jpmororgan. obamacarare realally is too bureaucratic to work. >> that pututs much on the tabable to discuss. we will have two more segegments to talk about this.

stay with us. will have much more on this topic after the break. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> we're back. we want to add m more voices to the discussion about the affordable care act decision from the supreme court. i spok to a florida congressman about the effects he thinks this will have on small businesses in florida. >> now with the court decision, i think it is another nail in the coffin of the economy when

we can least afford it. people are not going to move forward. we have already seen that without the question being answered today. it is very frightening for thee economy, jobs, and a small businesses. >> we like to hear from all sides. i also gave a call y yesterday to a member of nfib maryland. eric is the prereside and founder of event tech based out of baltimore. he thinks it has the potential to bring down costs, but his worried about fines and others. thank you for joining us. i appreciate the fact that you werere able to try to look at this from both sides. >> i certnly ink the mandate

is good in that it requires everyone to partipate financially. there are certainly some downsides. it will increase costs for m me and other businesses. it seems u unfair that the tax is disproportionately applied t to individuals. >> why do you feel like it is didisproportionate? >> as an individual, i saw it was somewhwhere in the range of just under $700 when it is full implemented. >> were you providing health care coverage -- >> i i do now. i spend more at this point. >> could it t bring down your costs? >> it can be. i highly doubt it in the future as to the cost of f might insurance will uimately be. we do not know the level of

qualifying insurance will be in the future and we do not know what m change in the amount that e employers ve to pay i in the penal. >> what wou your message be to gov. o'malley? that may be anption n for small businesses to pay the penalty and have employees use the exchange's big bang >> i do not like being involved in insurance atat all. it carries a lot of risk. it would be great to notot have to totouch it a as long as it is rereasonable amount to payay. >> i wento turn to karen haed who has beenn involved in this decision. any resnse to hisonces? >> that is what we are hearing from our members. he touched on a big issue. what kind of insurance are we

going toto have to h have under this law? what we have seen in all the different states is the more mandates you have on what a plan must cararry and cer, ththe higher the costs are going t to be. th is a really big issue for our members going forward. >> i undererstand why small businesses have a lot of concerns. he is what i do not get. causwe are a country that this side wewe are going allow you to g admitted to the hospital and to absorb t those costs, thehe true conservative would look at a young healthy person and say i am not going to pay my heah care and take my chances but i expect you to pay for my health care if i have an

accident. >> i am sorry too disappoint you the conservatives are not driven solelely on economic situations. they have to y this tax. yoyou have theroblem of when you do it this way through a very complexx government scheme w which is very different than the british health care system, youou have great opportunities for big companies to lobby so the costs are smaller. the bureaucracy tends to come down heavier on all businesses. we're seeing thatat rig now with dodd-frank an the banks. a l lot othe small banks are shshoppingng themselves to big banks because they cannot afford to work through regulatio. theyey think these things can be worked to o wind i it i is veryry

difficult. >> basically the way of saying i am a freeloader. the mandate was the government and the way -- >> the true libertarian position is to s if you do not have health care, you are owner. but we do not say that. there was a l law passed statating ththat the ergency rooms cannot tnown - -- >> and let the people n get ck. >> firee prorotection onewas on a prescription basis. ifif youid n subscrib they let t it bururn dow >> we have e to go to break. we did hear from businesses. they do once uncertainty and want to know the supreme c court decided what is to come.

>>irst a federal hot minute. >> welcome to this editi of the federal hot minute. we have all heard about the economic challenges facing europe but how well their problems impact investment these countries need to make? the answer to this question and others was revealed in a new study which surveyed senior information technology public executives from the u.k., germany, france, andly italy. my company commissioned this study. mobility products will consume a larger portion of their budget. cyber security and data center consolidation were next. these countries would like to see more collaboration with the united states to thwartrt threats with the u.k., germany, and other countries having a strong sentiment that is successful

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fios. a network ahead. contact the vee zon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. so much to discuss about the supreme court decision. have little time but we want toalk about the polititics. joining us again, karen harned from the national federation o of independent business, s sahil karrom "talking points memo," and peter mororici. karen, you are with the legal centnter of nfib. are you gointo tryry and

repealed it politically? >>we have been very aggressiv to tryo get the whole law repeed. we will continue those efforts. we are lobbying to get the most onererous positions repealeled. those are two big issues fo uss going forward. >> it is a rule of thumb of business that what business is e more than anything else is certrtain e. jim told me yesterday that he ththinks theupreme court decisionon raises more questions than it a answers, so like it or not t there is a higher r degr of uncertainty moving fward. will theupreme couourt toto uphd it or not? if yu factor in the political uncertainty, doesn' that i insert the uncertaintnty that businesses are afraid of? >> there is also uncertainty

with regard to what this will cost. it is unclear what its goingng to c cost to ensurure yoself or your employeeees g going forward. >> what are the political stes? i think on thursday, it is very possible that barack obama lost the state of flolorida. >> i disagree. mr. romney w already hurting with the latino population. the governme is deeply involved with health care and d so forth. i remember thcultural residual being an italian americican in new y york. i thinkhis helps mr. obama great dea. > a year from now, ththe afrdablele care act still statands or will we have a new psident? >> think k it depends o on the election. >> item so glad to know you are

one of those who said punditry does not pay. >> i wod not try to predict the election but the battle is far from over with whatappens with thehe affordable caree act. its s hinges on what t happens inn the election. > we could have this coersation for another hour. stay withh u us. we have our number of the week. it is 3.6 billion.

[ female announcer ] the son of a single mom. proud father of two daughters. president obama knows that women being paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men isn't just unfair... it hurts families. so the first l he signed was the lilly ledbetter fair pay act to help ensure that women e paid the same as men for doing the exact same work. because president obama knows that fairness for women means a stronger middle class for america. [ obama

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>> as we head into the frth of july holiday, and numbmber of the week is $3.46 billion. the number of dollars spent on imported u.s. flags. most of them come from china. the u.s. exported about $663 million of americican flags. about $80,000 crossssed the bordeder last year. we hope younjoyt waving your fourth of ju flathis holidaday.. we hope you join us next sunday. i'm rebebecca cooper.

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