With overwhelming bipartisan support the part of the new health care legislation which stipulated a new tax reporting requirement for businesses was repealed by an 81-17 vote on Wednesday.
The legislation, a 1099 requirement, was highly criticized by businesses across the board and its overthrow was not surprising. Even Obama mentioned this detail in his State of the Union Address as one part of his health care overhaul that Democrats were willing to part with.
Last year, before the elections placed Republicans in control of the Senate, the law was debated and voted on several times, but always remained as a part of the health care reform package. At the heart of the debate was the question of how the government planned to pay for the reforms. Now that the 1099 reporting requirement has been officially dropped from the Obama Care plan, the Senate can continue the debate of how to pay for the legislation without hindrance from this little detail of the overall reform plan.