dr. holtz-eakin. you have said in the health care law that it's a threat to the health of small businesses and the mandates and penalties are a financial burden. do you think small firms disproportionately affected by the various mandates, penalties, and taxes in the law, will this affect their ability to increase employee wages, purchase equipment and hire new workers? >> absolutely. if you think of the smallest of the small businesses that the proponents of the law like to say, look, they get the credit and they're exempt from the mandate, so it's all going to be good. the reality is they will face the upward premium pressures that inevitably come from the benefit mandates that already have begun to be implemented and have drawn premiums up. the taxes that will be imposed on insurers and others, i've walked through the arithmetic of this, this is $5,000 for a family in five years. every time those premiums go up, they come up at expensive wages. there's no way around that. so even those ostensibly s

dr. holtz-eakin? >> i guess i would echo the

dr. holtz-eakin. you have said in the health care law that it's a threat to the health of small businesses and the mandates and penalties are a financial burden. do you think small firms disproportionately affected by the various mandates, penalties, and taxes in the law, will this affect their ability to increase employee wages, purchase equipment and hire new workers? >> absolutely. if you think of the smallest of the small businesses that the proponents of the law like to say, look, they get the credit and they're exempt from the mandate, so it's all going to be good. the reality is they will face the upward premium pressures that inevitably come from the benefit mandates that already have begun to be implemented and have drawn premiums up. the taxes that will be imposed on insurers and others, i've walked through the arithmetic of this, this is $5,000 for a family in five years. every time those premiums go up, they come up at expensive wages. there's no way around that. so even those ostensibly s