Cameron Mitchell: Obamacare Is The Biggest Threat To My Business

For those familiar with the Columbus restaurant scene, you know Cameron Mitchell.  The name is associated with some of the finest dining in Central Ohio, from Cap City Diner to Marcella’s.  Not only is the food and atmosphere a great experience, but it’s a true American success story.

From Mitchell’s biography:

Cameron began his career in the restaurant industry nearly three decades ago, when he began as a dishwasher at a local steakhouse. A few years later, when he was working as a line cook during a chaotic shift change, he realized he loved the restaurant business and set out to make it his lifelong career.

After that shift, he put pen to paper to map out his career goals, waking his mother in the middle of the night to share them with her.  Those goals – to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA), to become an executive chef by age 23, to be a restaurant general manager by 24, and ultimately to be president of a company by the age of 35 – eventually were the benchmarks that would set the course of Cameron Mitchell’s restaurant industry career.

The man personifies the American Dream–that through hard work, you can achieve anything.

Well, that is, if the American government doesn’t take it from you or get in the way of that success.

In a review of Mitchell and his restaurants, the Columbus Dispatch asked him what the biggest challenges were, and got an answer they may not have anticipated:

Q. What is the biggest threat to the restaurant industry?

A. Probably the Affordable Care Act. We have 3,000 employees between both companies, and we’re not sure yet how we’re going to handle the added expense of buying insurance for all of them. To pay $2,000 an employee is a hefty bill. But we’re a resilient bunch of people, so we’ll figure out a way through it.

The excerpt is a small part of the entire Dispatch review, but it speaks volumes.  A man who employs thousands of Americans, giving them and their families a paycheck, sees the hallmark policy of our President as the biggest threat to his business and those thousands of jobs.

That hits home in Columbus, Ohio, but it’s just one of the thousands, if not millions, of stories just like it all around the country.  Obamacare is a jobs killer.  Period.  It’s no wonder our national economy continues to lag behind, while common sense leaders, like Governor John Kasich, have things going in a positive direction, outpacing national unemployment by a full percentage point.

Mitchell’s story demonstrates why we need leaders like Kasich here in Ohio, instead of career politicians like Ted Strickland who, wouldn’t you know it, supports Obamacare.  It’s no wonder Ohio lost 400,000 jobs under Ted’s watch.

After the November election, our federal policy is what it is–we can’t change it, at least not for the next four years.  But we can mitigate it with proven pro-growth policies that have already created some 130,000+ jobs here in Ohio since Governor Kasich took over in 2011.

So while job creators like Mitchell are left wondering about our liberal leaders in Washington, D.C., they can take comfort that at least here in Ohio, our elected officials are protecting their right to grow and operate their businesses, and employing thousands of Ohioans in the process.