Firms have to pledge that they didn’t ‘liberate’ employees from their ‘job-chains’ just to become eligible for the brand-new employer mandate exemption

As if to further illustrate Charles Krauthammer’s remark that these ongoing, extralegal, ad hoc delays and law changes are “the stuff that you do in a banana republic,” there is this aspect to the new carve-out that Katherine Restrepo just posted:

Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

Naturally, this elegant solution will ensure that all reductions in full-time-equivalent workers will be a supply side, freedom-from-‘job-lock’ thing.