Obamacare Or Obamascare? Starbucks CEO Upbeat, Fox’s Hasselbeck Fearmongering

As Obamacare wends its way down the path to “law of the land,” many Americans are unclear as to how it will be implemented and, more importantly, affect their coverage — and while some CEOs are using the law as an excuse to further take from workers, the chief of Starbucks discouraged such punitive action in a recent interview.

If you listen to Fox News‘ Elizabeth Hasselbeck, however, Obamacare is like a scary movie — literally. Footage from a segment this morning posted by MMFA looks and sounds like something out of a horror movie, not a journalistic TV presentation about changes to insurance laws.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz spoke with Maria Bartiromo about the changes, and she asked about big firms like IBM switching up long-standing benefit packages. Bartiromo addressed the tight fist of many major employers in the post-recession years, to which Schultz suggested a return to reasonable benefit packages and conditions regardless of Obamacare.

He observed that the laws were a positive change, explaining:

“On balance, I would say the health care law, to provide health insurance for those people who did not have it, was a good thing for the country and a good thing for those people, and I would encourage them to find ways to provide the insurance and not figure out a way to either lower the hours or get around the system.”

Of overall workplace outlook, the Starbucks chief added:

“In terms of cash on the sidelines, it’s clear that over the years of the recession and the cataclysmic financial crisis, many companies figured out a way to cut out costs and be very productive. The question now is, are those jobs going to come back? We need to significantly invest back into the country. The only way we can do that is to provide economic opportunities for people who are unemployed.”

He concludes:

“I think we have a greater responsibility beyond just the (profit and loss) of our business, to do the right thing not only for our employees, but the communities we serve, to try and make a difference beyond just making money. I say this through the lens of being a CEO of a public company, recognizing that I have a significant fiduciary responsibility to make a profit and build shareholder value. But after 30 years of being in this seat, what I’ve learned is that we can make a profit and perhaps do even greater by also demonstrating to multiple constituencies that we mean well in the world.”

Hasselbeck, however, was in full-on fearmongering mode this morning, and in the clip below, she describes Obamacare as a terrifying force waiting to be unleashed upon America.

What do you think about Obamacare? A chance at affordable coverage, or a threat to our freedoms?