U.S. Sen. Grassley: Administrative burden, costs to IRS of health care reform

Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, continues to press the Administration and congressional Democrats to account for the administrative burden and expense to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of significant new agency responsibilities under health care reform. Today he released a brief response from the Administration to his earlier inquiry and made the following comment.

“The Administration’s apparent lack of interest in acknowledging the challenges and costs of administering all of these changes is intellectually dishonest. This is all part of health care reform, and the Administration ought to be transparent about it. It’s safe to say a lot of people already have enough trouble dealing with the IRS when problems come up. A recent TIGTA report also shows that the agency is having trouble administering the existing health care tax credit. So it’s hard to see how the agency could take on the huge responsibility it would be given under pending health care legislation without some real glitches, or worse. The White House and congressional Democrats need to take all of this into account and not set the IRS up for failure.”