1099 Reasons to Doubt the Senate

Today the US Senate voted on two amendments related to the health reform. One was a vote on repeal, which failed on a party-line vote. The other amendment was successful with 81 Senators voting to repeal the 1099 provision of the health reform law.

So an actual law, voted on by the majority in Congress and signed by the President, is able to garner 81 votes for repeal in the Senate after only 11 months? Not to mention the fact that the 1099 provision hasn't even gone into effect yet, so we have not even seen it in action.

I thought this was exactly the kind of thing the Senate was designed to protect against.

Here's a description of the 1099 provision from back in May (from CNN Money):

Section 9006 of the health care bill -- just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document -- mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year...

While all but unnoticed at the time -- a Pennsylvania business group issued the first warning last October as the idea emerged in draft Senate legislation

And from coverage of today's debate:

By a bipartisan vote of 81-17, the Senate on Wednesday evening passed an amendment by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) that would repeal a provision from the ACA that requires all businesses to fill out a tax form known as a "1099" each time they spend $600 or more....

...businesses complained that the provision was too onerous, congressional Republicans and Democrats didn't like it, and even President Obama called the provision a "flaw" during his State of the Union address last week and said that he was open to removing it from the law.

If you are just going to gulp your coffee, what is the point of a cooling saucer?