It turns out there’s one feature of the healthcare reform law just about everyone agrees on. A provision requiring increased reporting of payments by businesses using Form 1099 was designed to increase government revenues by some $44 billion without increasing taxes. Yet the paperwork burden brought complaints from all quarters, reaching such a level that President Obama mentioned the need to repeal this provision in his State of the Union address. Repeal had been stymied by disagreement over how to prevent a $44 billion increase in the projected budget deficit. The Senate has now voted overwhelmingly in favor of repeal with a provision that calls for unspecified cuts in spending.

