Congressional Democrats found a lot of ways to pay for the country’s health insurance overhaul, some more popular than others. But one in particular has small lawn services, work-at-home parents and the nation’s smallest businesses mighty concerned. In a move to increase government revenues for health care while cutting tax abuses, Congress included a provision in the bill, approved in March, requiring businesses to file Internal Revenue Service reports on expenditures above $600 to any single vendor.
Here is how John Boehner, the House Republican leader and a leading critic of the provision (and the health insurance bill), derided it when he spoke at the City Club of Cleveland on Aug. 24: "If a landscaper wants to buy a new lawnmower, or a restaurant needs a new ice-maker, they have to report that to the feds. If you're a mom-and-pop grocery store, and you buy $1,000 worth of merchandise from 15 different vendors, that's 15 different forms you have to file."
We have to assume that Boehner, who’s from southwestern Ohio, meant the mom-and-pop store is spending $1,000 on each of the vendors, rather than spreading a $1,000 purchase among 15 vendors (because that would only be $66.66 each). If that is the case, Boehner’s statement is true, or will be as of Jan. 1, 2012. But Boehner is not the only one calling it nuts. So is the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and even a Cleveland congressman who is generally Boehner’s ideological opposite.
"This obviously was something that needed to be better thought out," said that congressman, Democrat Dennis Kucinich, in a telephone interview. "It has to be fixed, and it will be fixed, because it’s not tolerable." - Politifact
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