Five reasons why Papa John's should raise the dough for employee health care

According to a recent article in Zack's Equity Research, "In the next six years, the company expects to open approximately 1,500 restaurants, including 300 in North America and 1,200 in the international market." Papa John's isn't expanding for survival -- companies don't generally focus on expansion unless they have some nickels and dimes to spare, in their corporate couch cushions. So perhaps putting the international stores on hold for now, or scaling back on overseas expansion would free up the cash to pay for affordable health care. In another recent article, this one in Forbes, broke down the math on how much Papa John's would have to raise prices to make up the difference in employee health care. "For the sake of argument, let's say that Papa John's sells exactly half medium/half large specialty pizzas," the article says. "Averaging the ranges for both sizes, then averaging that product yields a .86% price increase -- well outside the range of what Schnatter says Obamacare will cost him. So how much would prices go up, under these 50/50 conditions, if they were to fairly reflect the increased cost of doing business onset by Obamacare? Roughly 3.4 to 4.6 cents a pie." So much for the A-pizza-lypse talk that Schnatter is spewing.

1. Because sour-grapey Romney supporters need to move on

Does this vehement clamoring for corporate justice have anything to do with the fact that Romney supporters just got lobbed in the jimmies? Well, shockitty-shock-shock, John Schnatter was a Mitt Romney supporter, even throwing a private fund-raiser for the candidate at his mansion. According to the Los Angeles Times, Romney was given a tour of the grounds and he declared, "Who would've imagined pizza could build this. This is really something. Don't you love this country? What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course...This is a real tribute to America, to entrepreneurship." But, ike many other rich Republicans, Schnatter got President Obama instead of President Romney, and those wasted campaign contributions could very well give some bitterman vibes. But fucking over your own employees to make a statement about Obamacare seems a little much. Time to move on, John.