The Washington Free Beacon has a couple of interesting stories:
First, "The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster will shift more employees to part-time status in a trial designed to minimize the impact of new requirements imposed by the Affordable Care Act."
And second, one of the big players in the subsidized cellphone service "ObamaPhone" business covered here the other day turns out to be "Miami-based TracFone Wireless, a company whose president and CEO, Frederick "F.J." Pollak, has donated at least $156,500 to Democratic candidates and committees this cycle, including at least $50,000 to the Obama campaign. Pollak's wife, Abigail, is a campaign bundler for Obama who has raised more than $632,000 for the president this cycle, and more than $1.5 million since 2007. She has personally contributed more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2008." The Free Beacon says TracFone is the American affiliate of America Movil, the company controlled by Carlos Slim, the Mexican investor in the New York Times.
Both these stories are great examples of patterns. With the health care one, it is the pattern of unintended consequences, of programs intended to help the poor that wind up hurting them. The ObamaCare proponents say, "we're going to help the working poor by getting their employers to give them health insurance." What actually happens is the working poor get their hours cut, and wind up worse off than before, because they still have no health insurance, but now they have a part-time job instead of a full-time job.
With the cellphone one, it is the pattern of programs intended to help the poor that wind up helping the rich. If you believe Forbes, Carlos Slim is the richest billionaire in the world, with net worth of $69 billion. Congress figures it is going to try to help poor, elderly, or disabled Americans by giving them cellular phones to call for help in an emergency. It winds up further enriching a Mexican billionaire who is already the richest person in the world.
