Hector Camacho might be in tough shape in hospital, but someone is out there bobbing and weaving like a champ. Meet Karen Mills, President Obama's head of the Small Business Administration.
When Joe Scarborough asked her straight-up to state the cost per worker of Obamacare, Mills ducked like a pro, switched the subject, and wound up describing . . . how last year, she bought blueberry jam at a Maine farmers market as gifts for her friends! Not a joke—just a world-class non sequitur from an Obama administration that would rather talk about anything other than the cost of its big-government plans. View the video after the jump.
You'll note that after Scarborough poses the direct question as to the cost of Obamacare per worker, Mills answers that she knows he wants to talk about that, but she rambles on instead about the "momentum" she's seeing in the small business sector. Realizing he's not going to get a straight answer, Scarborough eventually asks her about the Small Business Saturday initiative that the SBA--and MSNBC--are promoting. That's when she spills about the blueberry jam.
Sidenote: Mills is oh-so-politically correct. When Scarborough suggests she had bought the jam "for Christmas" presents, Mills corrects him: "for the holidays."
JOE SCARBOROUGH: We do hear from business owners, I'm sure you do too, that are now contemplating after the election, I started certainly hearing from a lot in Pensacola, saying gosh, I'm going to have to keep people under 30 hours and if I keep people under 30 hours, so Obamacare doesn't apply to me. I'm going to lose my best people, I'm going to be hiring part-timers and it's only a matter of time before I go out of business and I can't afford the costs of what this new regulation puts on me. First of all, will you explain to us, cause we keep hearing about 30 hours, 30 hours. Explain that cutoff and secondly, what do you tell those business owners? Why are they wrong?
KAREN MILLS: You know, I travel all around the country. Every week I go to a different part of the country. I'm with small businesses. And I'm not hearing that.
SCARBOROUGH: You've never heard that?
MILLS: I'll tell you what I hear.
SCARBOROUGH: You need to talk to your staff and tell them to get you out of the bubble because we are hearing it all the time.
MILLS: We are out there, every single day, here's --
SCARBOROUGH: I don't mean to be short. Have you never heard that before?
MILLS: When I am out, absolutely, what small businesses want to do is grow their business. And the other thing that they want--this is what I hear all the time--I want to provide health care. We are like a family here. The day that I get to provide health care for my workers, that was the day I called my business a success. That's what I hear.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: What -- do you know what the average cost is for let's say per employee for Obamacare? For a small business?
MILLS: I know you're focused on this, but I'll tell you, right out there now, for -- we are seeing momentum in small businesses and for the first time in a number of years, we are getting small businesses who've got a plan for the future.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: Talk about this Saturday and why it is so important for small businesses who are, you know, working hard to grow their business?
MILLS: Well, you know, we have two kinds of businesses here. We have Main street business and some of these high-growth, high-impact ones. Saturday is day for us to visit our Main street businesses. And I want to know where you're going to go shopping. I know Willie has a place, right. I come from Maine, and our Main street has an "e" on it. I went shopping last year in Maine at the farmers market and I bought blueberry jam for all my friends, home-made made blueberry jam for all my friends in Washington.
SCARBOROUGH: For Christmas.
MILLS: Yeah, for the holidays.
