Recall Princess Pelosi’s last words prior to the passage of Obamacare. “Well, you’ll just have to read the bill after its passed to find out what’s in it!”
That’s probably the most erudite thing she has ever said as surely no one had any clue as to what they were unleashing on the American economy. As of today, August 24, there have been 4000+ regulations written in Washington to run Obamacare. And just think, it doesn’t even begin for another four years.
One of the most insidious things that was slipped in is what has become known as the “1099 Mandate”. The Dem leaders say it was a necessary to help pay for Obamacare and it no doubt will raise a tremendous amount of tax revenue but at what cost?
Essentially, this mandate dictates that every business transaction over $600 will require a Form 1099 (we all know what they are) be sent from seller to buyer with copy to the IRS. Current law requires this reporting payments to non-corporate service providers but Obamacare broadened that to include corporate vendors and purchases of goods. The law also requires ALL businesses to issue 1099s to document EVERY business-to-business transaction of $600 or more. Congress hopes to raise $17 billion from this, not chump change.
But who will pay this? The burden of raising that expected revenue falls again on the backs of small business owners who already suffer under unmanageable federal paperwork burdens. What’s worse, this new reporting requirement has absolutely nothing to do with health-care reform. It was included to help pay for the nearly trillion-dollar price tag of the bill. Why should small business owners have to pay for a bill that causes them so much harm? They shouldn’t, which is why the Natinal Federation of Indepndent Businesses (NFIB) is fighting against this law in court.
Basically, businesses will have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity in a year. For the $14 trillion U.S. economy, that’s a hell of a lot of 1099s. When a business buys a $1,000 used car, it will have to gather information on the seller and mail 1099s to the seller and the IRS. When a small shop owner pays her rent, she will have to send a 1099 to the landlord and IRS. Recipients of the vast flood of these forms will have to match them with existing accounting records. There will be huge numbers of errors and mismatches, which will probably generate many costly battles with the IRS.
In order to file all these 1099s, you’ll need to collect the necessary information from all your service providers. In order to comply with the law, you would have to get a Taxpayer Information Number or TIN from the business. If the vendor does not supply you with a TIN, you are obligated to withhold on your payments. Call this, the anti-stimulus bill.
Even the Dems know this is ridiculous and they tried to pass legislation a week or two ago to repeal this mandate But they rigged the vote and it failed even though there was a majority in favor. Liars sure can figure, can’t they? Here’s how Princess Pelosi did it.
Just before the House left town for August, Dave Camp, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, offered an amendment that would have rescinded these mandates; as a “motion to recommit,” it was guaranteed an up-or-down vote.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and wingman Sander Levin were terrified that rank-and-file Democrats would defect, so they pulled their entire bill and reintroduced it a few hours later, with the basic Camp language included. In other words, not only was the House leadership unwilling to defend the 1099 provision but it took the lead in rolling it back, if only to prevent an embarrassing floor spectacle.
One catch: The bill was put on the House suspension calendar, meaning it needed a two-thirds majority to become law. In the end, the combined bill shook out 241 to 154, with 239 Democrats voting yea. Most Republicans who favor repealing the 1099 mandate voted no because the final product also included multiple new taxes. Thus Democrats can now say they voted to repeal the 1099 burden without in fact having repealed it.
Now everything stated above is indeed disastrous but why was it done? I don’t buy for one minute the pay for Obamacare angle. No way, man! This is another step closer to socialism. It has a both tactical and strategic objective.
On the tactical front consider this. Armed with all this knowledge of who is buying what and how much is being paid for it, the Dems can figure EXACTLY how much they can reap from a VAT because they will now know every single transaction in the manufacturing process. Something they can only guess at now. Here comes the VAT!
Strategically it allows them to plan our economy completely as they will have all the data. Socialism will reign supreme and we will all wonder, “how did that happen?”
Readers, we are at war and don’t know it. If you value the American way of life and want to leave your kids and grand kids a better world, VOTE THE BUMS OUT, ALL OF THEM!
