Jim Cramer didn’t see that one coming.
Speaking on TheStreet Thursday, the host of CNBC’s "Mad Money" said he wasn’t sure why Chief Justice John Roberts decided to join the majority opinion of the Supreme Court to uphold a central piece of President Obama's health care law. But Cramer was sure about one thing: The decision is going to hurt small businesses.
“This is something that if you’re a small business man, you’re really worried about because you have to provide more health care than you’d like to," he said. “Everybody who thought they were going to have to pay is going to pay. If you’re Home Depot, you have to spend more money. And if you’re a little hardware store with 40 or 50 employees, you’ll also have to pay more.”
Some business owners share Cramer’s fears that costs will rise because of the ruling, others don’t, and some just don’t know what the effect will be on their bottom line.
But the diversity of opinions among mom-and-pops hasn’t prevented politicians and market observers like Cramer from holding up the possible effect on America’s most beloved job creator -- small business -- as the reason the Supreme Court’s decision is good or bad for the nation.