Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to compliment my colleague from South Dakota for his commitment and continuing focus on jobs and the economy and the impact it has on our Nation and our future.

I come, as I have week after week, with a doctor's second opinion about the health care law--which is, in many ways, directly tied to the economy and the economic situation that my colleague from South Dakota was commenting on.

We have seen continual unemployment of over 8 percent--now 8.2 percent--with people graduating from college who can't find work are going back to live with their parents. It is because the President focused on a health care law--and the Supreme Court will rule on it tomorrow, but he focused on that instead of focusing on what people at home are concerned about: jobs and the economy, getting the economy moving again and bringing the economy back to health. A healthy economy is what people were looking for.

I come to the floor to talk a bit about things that have happened since the health care law was passed, because President Obama and Democrats repeatedly promised the health care law would do several things.

One, they said it would make health insurance more affordable, and they also said it would help create jobs for millions of Americans--millions of Americans, they said.

In fact, after the Senate completed passage of the health care law, Majority Leader Reid said: ``This of course is a health bill.'' He said, ``It's also a jobs bill.'' He went on. He said it was also an economic recovery bill. He said it was a deficit-reduction bill. He said it was an antidiscrimination bill. He said it was truly a bill of rights. He went on to say: ``And now it is the law of the land.'' An economic recovery bill, he said; a jobs bill, he said.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi added: ``It's about jobs.'' She said: ``In its life, health care reform would create 4 million jobs--400,000 jobs almost immediately.'' That has not happened--another broken promise to the American people.

That is why I have come to the floor week after week to point out issues with this health care law, which I continue to believe is bad for patients, bad for the providers, the nurses and the doctors who take care of those patients, and terrible for taxpayers.

One of the key components of the health care law that the President promised would help create jobs was what he referred to as the small employer health insurance tax credit. Back in April of 2010, the President said: ``This health care tax credit is pro-jobs, it is pro-business, and it starts this year.'' In essence, the credit was supposed to offset the cost of health insurance for small businesses so they could provide insurance to their employees.

The President's Council of Economic Advisers made some estimates. They estimated that about 4 million--4 million--small businesses, they said, would be eligible for the credit. The administration was so proud of the initiative that they sent out millions of postcards to small businesses. I believe they actually never read it, didn't understand it, didn't understand how it worked, because Susan Collins, the Senator from Maine, stood on the floor of the Senate and said:

Look at how it really works. It is not going to work the way you have described it.

But, no, this administration that knows better than anyone, they were so proud of the initiative, they sent out millions of postcards. According to the IRS, 4.4 million postcards were sent out. Who paid for it? The taxpayers. Do you remember them? They are the people at home, where only one in three of them thinks the country is heading in the right direction, and so many of them believe the tax dollars they send to Washington are not being used well.

The White House ignored them and urged small businesses to look at the tax credit criteria and to take advantage, they said, of the credit that would be available.

So what has been the response across the country of the over 4 million small businesses that received the postcards saying, Hey, look what we are doing for you.

According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, only about 170,300 employers were able to claim the credit, not 4 million. No. Of these 4 million that got the postcards, how many were able to take full advantage of the credit? Only 28,000. In other words, the credit only benefited about 4 percent of the businesses that the President promised to help. Ninety-six percent of the businesses that the President promised to help got nothing. Only 4 percent of the businesses were able to benefit at all, and even a smaller number than that were able to take full advantage.

The Wall Street Journal analyzed this issue in a recent article. The article featured Michael Griffin, the owner of a small advertising agency in St. Louis, MO. Michael had this to say about the tax credit the President promised and held up as some wonderful thing he was doing:

You're penalized for giving people a higher wage and more professional opportunity.

Is that what the Democrat's believe, that we should penalize businesses for giving people a higher wage and more professional opportunity?

Michael went on to say:

I appreciate any kind of tax reduction, but I can certainly not applaud a reduction that limits growth and the opportunity for employers to pay more to their employees. But that is exactly what this tax credit did. It limits the growth of a company, and it limits the opportunity for employers to pay more to their employees.

Mr. Griffin is not the only small business owner who has had problems with this tax credit, this big promise by the President. Jeffrey Berdahl, an accountant from Allentown, PA, spoke to the Associated Press about this very issue. He described the calculations required for the tax credit as ``mind-numbing.''

People pass laws here. I wonder if they read them or understand the implications. I believe they do not. He described what this Congress passed, what the President touts, as mind-numbing and also pointed out that for many of his clients--this accountant's clients--he said the money they received from the tax credit was offset by the money they had to pay their accountants to try to figure out if they could receive any of these credits.

In this same AP article, Terry Gutierrez from Raleigh, NC, stated, ``In some cases, it's [the tax credit] more hassle than it's worth.''

The GAO--the Government Accountability Office--confirmed these experiences in their report. They found that many small businesses are deterred from claiming the credit. Why? Because, like so much that has come out as part of this health care law, it is so complex. The report highlighted the fact that it requires 15 separate calculations. The President sends out a postcard to 4.4 million people, paid for by the taxpayers, to say: You may get a tax credit. Ninety-six percent of the people who get the postcard end up with nothing. Why? Did anybody look at this? There are 15 separate calculations and 7 separate worksheets just to calculate the amount of the credit.

The GAO was told by tax preparers that it would take their clients anywhere from 2 to 8 hours or possibly longer to gather the necessary information to just start to calculate the credit. On top of this, they found that tax preparers spent in general 3 to 5 hours calculating the credit. This from a postcard from the President that says he is going to do things for you? This is not the kind of help from Washington that small businesses are looking for or want or deserve. The American people deserve better.

For all of this trouble, GAO determined that the average amount claimed per small business across the country is less than $3,000--$2,700 is the average amount claimed. It is clear that this policy is just another broken promise of the President's health care law.

Since the President recently said that the private sector is doing fine--we remember it; we have seen him from the White House giving a speech saying the private sector is doing fine--the ineffectiveness of his small business tax credits may not bother him one bit but it does bother most Americans. As I speak with my neighbors across Wyoming, I know the truth of their lives is very much different from what the President may believe.

Many Americans are also concerned about the fact that bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service seem to benefit the most from the tax provisions in the law. According to the Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS will need nearly 1,300 new Federal employees in 2012 to implement the President's health care law. That is what they are asking for--1,300 new Federal employees for the IRS.

In a report issued on June 14 of this year, just a week or two ago, the inspector general pointed out that enforcing the small business health insurance tax credit, he said, is one of the reasons why the Agency must expand. They need 1,300 new Federal employees so they can put forward and deal with this so-called tax credit that only 4 percent of the people whom the President said it would help have actually received any credit. And the amount they received is so very low that for most of them it was not worth even doing the paperwork.

While the President and Washington Democrats may believe that adding employees to the IRS is the key to job creation, I respectfully disagree. The private sector is not fine, and the government does not need to get any bigger. This is why I have fought and will continue to fight to replace the President's health care law with real reforms that will improve competition, increase consumer choice, and lower the cost of care for all Americans. That is what this was all supposed to be about in the first place--patient-centered care; giving people the care they need from a doctor they choose, not that the government chooses, not that the insurance company chooses, but that they choose, at lower cost.

That is why I come to the floor week after week with a doctor's second opinion about a health care law at a time that I still believe the health care law that the Supreme Court will rule on tomorrow is one that is bad for patients, bad for providers--the nurses and doctors who take care of those patients--and it is terrible for our taxpayers.

I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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