Manchin's reform amendment fails to pass

by: Carnacki

Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 09:42:10 AM EST

MANCHIN DISSAPOINTED
AMENDMENTS TO REPEAL 1099 FORMS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES FAIL

Manchin cosponsored the amendment to help small businesses and reform health care

Washington, D.C. - Senator Joe Manchin was disappointed that two attempts to repeal the 1099 provision from health care reform, including one amendment he cosponsored, failed to win enough support to move forward. The amendments (Johanns amendment 4702 and Baucus amendment 4713) would have repealed one of the health care reform's requirements for small businesses to file 1099 forms with the IRS on payments made for goods and services more than $600.

"I am disappointed that the first attempt to repeal the 1099 requirement from Health Care reform failed," Manchin said. "We must lift the heavy paperwork burden off the backs of our nation's small business owners so that they can focus on what they do best - create jobs. Whether this year or next, I am committed to working with Republicans and Democrats who share my concern for jobs and small businesses and the need to repeal this provision from health care reform."

This is an important reform to the imperfect health care reform act that should be passed and I hope Senator Manchin brings it back up again.

Atrios at Eschaton Sept 14:

The 1099 reporting requirements  in the health care bill are absolutely insane, forcing businesses to track purchases by vendor, obtain tax ID information, and file 1099s to the IRS and vendor any time you do more than $600 worth of business with that vendor over the year. It'll be an absolute nightmare for any small business, for the tracking, the paperwork, and come tax season when you have to wait around for all those 1099s which may or may not show up because compliance will of course be spotty... because it's nuts.

This is an issue where Manchin is correct and should be supported. Unfortunately Sen. Jay Rockefeller and too many other Democrats did not. See important update below. Rockefeller DID VOTE the correct way on the better Baucus amendment that Manchin also had cosponsored.

Update

David Waldman at DailyKos has a great breakdown on the arcana of the amendment votes:

So, what did we learn? We learned that Republicans almost universally will abandon their principles in pursuit of setting up a poison pill vote for Democrats. Every Republican present voted for the Johanns repeal plus offset package, and only two of them voted for the Baucus repeal, even though they swear every other day of the year that tax cuts don't need to be paid for, and the repeal could have passed with 82 votes had they adhered to that position and really been in favor of "working together to get something done." Here were Congressional Democrats and the White House, willing to meet them halfway on declaring a provision of the health insurance reform bill to be the mistake and misstep that Republicans said it was, and to do so on terms that Republicans demand every day with respect to tax cuts, and they walked away from it, just so Democrats wouldn't be able to participate in doing something Republicans said would be the right thing to do.