Obama on corporations blaming ObamaCare for wage cuts: 'Shame on them'

Barack Obama
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Obama on Tuesday struck back at critics who claim the Affordable Care Act is to blame for companies cutting back on employee hours. In a sprawling interview with BuzzFeed, the president put the onus on enormously profitable corporations — in this case Staples, which threatened to fire workers who go over 25 hours per week — for the cutbacks.

It's one thing when you've got a mom-and-pop store who can't afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers — even though a large percentage of those small businesses do it because they know it's the right thing to do — but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers' wages, shame on them. [BuzzFeed]

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.