The AP reported yesterday, “Congress sent the White House its first rollback of the new health care law on Tuesday, a bipartisan repeal of a tax reporting requirement that was widely unpopular with businesses. The Senate voted 87 to 12 to repeal a requirement that would have forced businesses to file tax forms for every vendor selling them more than $600 in goods each year, starting in 2012.”

Roll Call adds, “All but a dozen Senate Democrats joined a united Senate GOP Conference on Tuesday in voting 87-12 to send Obama the House-passed version of a bill to repeal a requirement that companies to file a 1099 form with the IRS every time they conduct $600 worth of business with a vendor. Members of both parties had panned the provision as overly burdensome to small businesses . . . . Senate Republican leaders seized on Tuesday’s overwhelming vote as an indication that there would be bipartisan support for other efforts to chip away at the law. ‘A bunch of Democrats voted for this repeal, so there will be other efforts,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.’” And the AP points out, “Republicans hope the bill is the first of many measures that will ultimately result in the dismantling of the entire health care law.”

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell noted yesterday, “This has been a hard-fought effort — and all the credit should go to the Junior Senator from Nebraska, my good friend Senator [Mike] Johanns. He has led this fight on behalf of the countless entrepreneurs and small business owners across the country who raised the alarm on this issue.”

Indeed, when Sen. Johanns first got a vote on his amendment to repeal this onerous provision back in September 2010, 52 Democrats voted against it. But yesterday, thanks to the tireless work of Sen. Johanns and the support of more than 170 business groups, common sense finally prevailed and the burdensome requirement on job creators was repealed with a strong bipartisan vote.

Today, senators will have another opportunity to protect job creators from burdensome regulations and ordinary Americans from higher energy prices by voting for an amendment offered by Leader McConnell and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). The McConnell-Inhofe amendment would stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act, something that law was never intended for, which could result in a back-door national energy tax.

Will Democrat senators who voted to repeal the burdensome 1099 requirements from their health care law and protect job creators do the same by voting to block EPA regulations being pushed by the Obama administration? Democrat West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Friday, “I believe there’ll be 13 to 15 Democrats that will vote for it.” Hopefully, Sen. Manchin will be proven correct, since passing the McConnell-Inhofe amendment would be another positive development for American businesses that create jobs.

Rasmussen Reports:

54% Favor Health Care Repeal, 56% Say Law Will Increase Deficit

64% Say Americans Are Overtaxed, Political Class Disagrees

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