Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I wish to thank the Senator from Nebraska for offering this amendment. Obviously, it has been offered before, but every…”

“I wish to thank the Senator from Nebraska for offering this amendment. Obviously, it has been offered before, but every time I go home it renews my energy to try to stop this from taking effect. Small businesspeople are approaching me and saying: This is crazy. Do we have to report every trip to the Office Depot? Do we have to report every travel voucher for $600 because I am going to a meeting in California? This defies description, except to say it is one more overbearing government intrusion on free enterprise in our country. So I hope very much that because of the message of the elections in November more people will see this is not necessary. It is certainly not a part of health care reform. In fact, when I saw this come out-- this little provision tucked in the enormous health care reform bill-- my thinking was twofold: One, they are paying for this enormous cost of the government takeover of health care on the backs of small businesspeople in our country. That would be one interpretation. The other would be that all the talk coming out of Washington about new taxes and possibly a value-added tax means they are starting to want to get the reports that would be the basis of a new tax system. Neither of those things should be part of health care reform in this country. So I am hopeful we can put a stop to this right now.”