Defend It, Don't Mend It

You can do a lot with 59 Senate votes, and that was certainly clear this week as Majority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats slammed the door on a bipartisan attempt to repeal ObamaCare's new 1099 reporting requirement on small business. 

The Democrats, unable to sell ObamaCare to their consituents, have resorted to saying:  "it's not perfect, but it's a start, and we will fix the problems with it over time."  Well, the issue of the 1099 reporting requirements shows how empty that promise is.  Virtually everyone, including the IRS' own Taxpayer Advocate,  agrees that the new 1099 reporting requirements are an abomination:

The office of the National Taxpayer Advocate within the IRS estimates that this provision will affect 40 million businesses. In July, they issued a harsh report on the consequences of the 1099 provision. They noted that small businesses in particular will be harmed by the new reporting requirements.

They state that the new burden on businesses would be disproportionate compared the actual revenue gained. For a relatively small increase in revenue, small businesses across the country would need to purchase new software and accounting services to handle the new paperwork.

Well, the opportunity to fix this clearly flawed provision of ObamaCare came up this week, with a bipartisan majority of senators supporting it.  But Harry Reid made sure it didn't pass.  If the Democrats can't mend this provision, they can't mend any provision of ObamaCare.   They intend to defend it, not mend it.