TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Caterpillar, Deere, AT&T and Verizon have announced substantial ($100 million to $1 billion) writedowns due to healthcare bill.

In response, Democrats are hauling their CEOs before Congress:

Almost immediately, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman of California and Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations panel, announced plans to hold an April 21 hearing on “claims by Caterpillar, Verizon, and Deere that provisions in the new health care reform law could adversely affect their company’s ability to provide health insurance to their employees. These assertions appear to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

This is now the America we live in: when companies follow the law and announce increased costs, they are called before Congress so they (and all other companies) can be intimidated, because this reality is inconvenient for the government.

Change.