Dan Coats: “I am here to essentially support the hard work of a colleague, Senator Johanns, in bringing to the floor tomorrow a vote…”

“I am here to essentially support the hard work of a colleague, Senator Johanns, in bringing to the floor tomorrow a vote to repeal the 1099 provisions in the current health care bill. As I campaigned throughout the State of Indiana over this past year, meeting with businesspeople and individuals running shops in a small town and large businesses on the outskirts of busy manufacturing centers, several themes were repeated over and over and over. One was that we continue to have problems in creating jobs because of the massive amount of regulations that are flowing out of Washington that, at a time of fiscal downturn in particular, are keeping our businesses from going forward and hiring people, being competitive. We spend time in the back room with paperwork, filling out what seems to be unnecessary burdens imposed upon us by regulatory agencies. Some of these regulations are necessary. We all know that for purposes of health and safety, there are regulations that are important in keeping companies' feet to the fire in terms of making sure their workplace is a safe and healthy place to work. These are important, and there are others. But clearly there is an excess. What I heard people saying all across the State of Indiana was that our government has grown too big, it spends too much money and it overregulates.…”