Did Speaker Pelosi Read the Health Care Bill?
In a post-election interview with Diane Sawyer, Speaker Pelosi referenced the new 1099 paperwork mandate on small businesses cited by President Obama as one of the things he’d like to change about the bill he signed into law. Here’s one paragraph from the transcript:
So, when we have this debate piece by piece, I think the American people will see how they like pieces of it, and how they relate to each other. And that some of that – you know, a 1099, it was a Senate provision. We didn’t like it in the House. The President mentioned it today. We’ve already passed on the floor – the repeal of 1099 in the House of Representatives. So, you know, there are certain pieces of it that should always be subjected to review.
There’s only one problem with the Speaker’s assertion: Section 553 of the House-passed health care bill (H.R. 3962) contained the identical 1099 paperwork burden language included in Section 9006 of the Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) enacted into law.
In March Speaker Pelosi famously said that Democrats had to pass the health care bill “so that you can find out what is in it.” Given her comments above – and the legislative language she helped pass through the House a year ago this week – some may wonder whether the Speaker should follow her own advice and examine more closely what’s actually in the Democrats’ 2,700-page health care law.