Throughout the 2012 campaign, many business owners who supported Mitt Romney’s campaign warned that President Obama is bad for business — and that his re-election would have negative consequences for their employees.
After Election Day, some of those execs are apparently prepared to follow through with their threats. Although no substantive policies have changed since the votes were cast, these five executives are throwing tantrums over the results — and taking out their frustrations on the American people:
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter
Schnatter, who raised money for Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign, has reacted to Obama’s re-election by claiming that — now that the Affordable Care Act is clearly here to stay — Papa John’s will have to raise pizza prices and cut back on workers’ hours to make up for the higher costs.
Schnatter claims that the law will cost him 11-14 cents per pie, a figure that is disputed by Forbes. Of course, if Papa John’s is really hard up for cash, instead of punishing workers, it could maybe reconsider its plan to give away 2 million free pizzas.
Photo via papajohns.com
Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray
Murray made headlines during the presidential campaign for forcing his employees to forfeit a day’s work (and pay) to attend a Mitt Romney rally and pressuring them to donate money to his campaign. After President Obama was re-elected — despite the fact that nothing at all had changed in the coal industry since Election Day — Murray responded by reading a prayer and firing 156 employees.
Photo credit: AP/Paul Fraughton, File
Restaurateur John Metz
Metz, who is a franchisor of Hurricane Grill & Wings and the president and owner of RREMC Restaurants, which runs several Denny’s and Dairy Queen locations, has a particularly retributive way to offset the cost of insuring his employees. Metz will cut all of his employees to under 30 hours a week, and add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills.
“If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare,” Metz explained to The Huffington Post.
Apple-Metro CEO Zane Tankel
Zane Tankel, a New York-area Applebee’s franchisor, has claimed that the cost of providing insurance to his employees has made it impossible for him to hire more employees for the foreseeable future.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini
Bertolini, who allegedly used over $7 million of Aetna’s corporate funds to try and defeat President Obama and other Democratic candidates in 2012, may be the next CEO to take out his political anger on the American people. On Tuesday, Bertolini warned that if Obama and Congress don’t make a deal to avoid the debt ceiling, “The American people are going to suffer because we’ll lay them off — because we know how to respond to these kinds of situations.”
Photo credit: World Economic Forum/Adam Nadel
