Political Quotes

“Mr. President, later, as we move to the bill on small business, I will be offering, I hope, a second-degree amendment to the amendment offered by Senator Johanns, and I speak today on behalf of middle-class families and on behalf of small businesses. I wish to start by saying that I fully support--as I have already done in a series of votes--repealing the 1099 reporting requirement, but I strongly believe we have to do so in a manner that does not--does not--increase the burden on our small businesses and employees. The amendment of Senator Johanns certainly helps only small businesses through the repeal of the 1099 provision, but--and this is less well- known--I believe it actually hurts small business employees. It is a double-edged sword. The Johanns amendment risks driving up health insurance costs and cutting health insurance coverage for small businesses. As you know, the affordable care act provides tax credits to families who earn under $74,000 per year to help them purchase health insurance. Those tax credits are set at the start of the year. At tax time, when families actually report their annual income, the tax credits are reconciled with their annual household income to ensure they receive the correct amount of assistance. But because income and other family circumstances can change during the course of a year, individuals might end up getting excess tax credits even though the amount of the payment was correct at the time.…”