1. ObamaCare 1099: Nelson voted for fellow Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns’ amendment that would have scrapped a section from the ObamaCare law. The Wall Street Journal reported on this completely insane provision this week:
“small businesses are staring in horror toward 2013, when the 1099 mandate will hit more than 30 million of them. Currently businesses only have to tell the IRS the value of services they purchase from vendors and the like. Under the new rules, they'll have to report the value of goods and merchandise they purchase as well, adding vast accounting and paperwork costs. Think about a midsized trucking company. The back office would have to collect hundreds of thousands of receipts from every gas station where its drivers filled up and figure out where it spent more than $600 that year. Then it would also need to match those payments to the stations' corporate parents. Most Democrats now claim they were blindsided and didn't understand the implications of the 1099 provision—which is typical of the slapdash, destructive way the bill was written and passed.
The amendment failed 46-52 as the majority Democrats decided it’s more important to continue to pile on small businesses and retard job growth further.
2. Immigration: The Omaha World-Herald reports that Senator Nelson “offered a simple warning to Democrat leaders, “Just don’t do it.” “It” being the “DREAM Act”, which is an amendment that Majority Leader Harry Reid is apparently going to add to the Defense bill that will be coming in front of the Senate soon.
Reid’s “DREAM Act” would allow children who are here illegally to attain citizenship if they go to college or join the military.
This Defense bill sets out a range of key defense policies, including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as well as the authorization for military spending over the next fiscal year.
3. Nelson was on FOXNEWS’ On The Record with Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night and here are the highlights:
- Bush Tax Cuts – “no time to be raising taxes on anybody”
- Stimulus – “you have to go county by county in Nebraska, we have done an analysis of that and I think it [Stimulus] has worked”
- Spending – “You have to control the spending. I am hopeful that our appropriations process this year will hold the line on any growth in spending.”
- Election Reaction in Delaware – “all need to be on our toes always focused on what’s going on back home. I paid close attention a year ago with what was going on in Nebraska and so we tried to focus with people back home with more information and better explanation. Sometimes it’s not as important how you vote but why you vote – make sure we are responding to these concerns people have.”
Well there you go. Digest that and think about what he said and did this week.