It Begins: Key Democrat Seeks to Repeal Part of ObamaCare

So it begins: Sen. Max Baucus is seeking to pass a bill that would take out a provision in ObamaCare that would force small businesses to report "payments to and purchases from any business totaling more than $600":

A key Senate Democrat announced Friday that he would introduce legislation to repeal a provision in the recently-passed health care reform law that would eliminate an overly-burdensome reporting requirement for small businesses that might have left many drowning in paperwork.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released a statement saying, "I have heard small businesses loud and clear and I am responding to their concerns."

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) contains a provision designed to raise revenue without raising tax rates, that would, beginning in 2012, require all businesses to report payments to and purchases from any business totaling more than $600 in a calendar year, regardless of what the money was used to purchase.

The Baucus legislation would strip the requirement from the bill entirely, but it will also leave a major hole from the revenue lost. The nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee estimated that $19 billion could be expected over 10 years.

Small business owners and their advocate groups have canvassed Capitol Hill for months decrying the provision which was designed to reduce the sizable "tax gap" between what individuals and businesses owe the IRS and what they actually end up paying. The IRS estimates that the government loses more than $300 billion each year from noncompliance.

But Baucus said small businesses "need to focus their efforts on creating good-paying jobs - not filing paperwork."

I love the last line from Baucus. It hits straight to the heart of the problem with that provision.

It will be interesting to see if this gets passed. If it does, it'll open the door for the Republicans to pass similar legislation next year that will further gut out more provisions out of the bill, in an effort to neuter the bill.

Sen Baucus (D): Taxing Health Benefits Might Wait Until After Obama is Elected in 2012

The Democratic senator from Montana suggested that enacting new taxes on health benefits could wait until 2013:

Legislation to be outlined next week in the Senate Finance Committee will likely include a new tax on workers with the costliest employer-provided health coverage, officials said Friday, but with implementation delayed until 2013 to minimize any political fallout.

The date is an obvious attempt to keep it out of the minds of voters until they get the Savior-in-Chief locked in the White House until 2017. This shows me that they know that people don't want this and will voice their displeasure at the polls come election.

Officials familiar with internal deliberations said the leading option under consideration by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman, would mean higher taxes for workers whose family coverage costs $15,000 a year or more in premiums paid by employer and employee combined.

The provision could generate hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade to help pay the $1 trillion or more the Obama administration has estimated is necessary under its plan to extend health care to millions of Americans who lack it. Cuts in projected Medicare and Medicaid spending are expected to make up much of the rest.

Overall, what does this mean? It could mean that Obamacare isn't going to happen without further borrowing more money from China to pay for it. If that is the case, it could effectively put Obamacare on ice for a few years.

The question that plagues my mind about this is this: if they know that people don't want this, why are they so persistant in their push to cram it down our thoats? Don't they know that think that most Americans resent the government telling them what to do and abhor nanny states?