Hidden in the new health care “reform” law is a requirement that every time a business makes a purchase over $600, they must send an IRS form 1099 to that person and the IRS — which includes obtaining that person’s name, address, and taxpayer ID.  Here’s a summary:

Basically, businesses will have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity in a year. For the $14 trillion U.S. economy, that’s a hell of a lot of 1099s. When a business buys a $1,000 used car, it will have to gather information on the seller and mail 1099s to the seller and the IRS. When a small shop owner pays her rent, she will have to send a 1099 to the landlord and IRS.

Now for large businesses that have an accounting system in place that is capable of handing this it will be difficult and burdensome, but still possible.  For a small business owner, collecting all this information and sending out these forms will probably require hiring another full time employee.  Not every mom and pop business out there has $100k in spare profits that they can see eaten up in government compliance costs.

All are owned by private or nonprofit groups overseeing buildings that were already deeply distressed and populated by the poorest of residents, giving owners razor-thin margins to operate on. People bought co-op apartments for as little as $250, according to the city, while renters pay as little as $90 a month.

…tell me if this surprises you:

the residents of 1694 Davidson Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, a formerly city-owned 42-unit building … say living conditions have gone from to bad to worse.The front door locks have long been broken. The garbage incinerator stopped working for months, leading to a stomach-churning stink and attracting raccoon-size rats.

Five years ago the elevator ground to a halt, forcing children of one tenant, Nina Mitchell, to take turns last year hoisting their mother, hobbled by a torn Achilles tendon, up and down four flights of stairs, in her wheelchair, until she healed.

Step one, break the market and impose artifically low caps on rental rates.  Step two, bemoan the poor condition of the city’s rental stock.  Anyone feel like these two are somehow related?

New York State must immediately begin moving thousands of people with mental illness into their own apartments or small homes and out of large, institutional adult homes that keep them segregated from society, a federal judge ordered on Monday.

On the face of it, it seems like a good idea – who isn’t for better care for the mentally ill?  The problem, of course, is that it costs money.  And when judges pass ruling that prohibit the state from caring for the mentally in a cost efficient manner, states looks to control costs by turning many of the borderline cases out onto the street.  Take a trip through downtown Berkeley and you’ll see what I mean.