Blackburn Spokesman: “Rural health care is going to be a huge thing for us.” Senator also looks to reduce medium business fees to the IRS
Washington D.C. – Senator Marsha Blackburn has been named to the Senate Finance Committee (SFC), a Blackburn spokesman has informed the Upper Cumberland Business Journal (UCBJ). The committee, which handles oversight of health care, trade and taxes, also oversees control of the red tape often burdening the small businesses who are the primary employer in the Upper Cumberland.
As a member of the committee, Blackburn intends to immediately present a bill that will help medium sized businesses reduce the fees they pay to an ever-expanding IRS.
“The president recently hired 87,000 IRS agents that are going to be investigating everyone from the grocery store on the corner to huge corporations,” the spokesman told the UCBJ. “We are going to try to reverse that. We are also going to try to reduce the fees that these companies are going to have to pay to the IRS because of the fact inflation is so high (40 year high).”
Rural health care will be a primary focus for the senator.
“Rural health care is going to be a huge thing for us,” according to the spokesman. “There have been so many hospital closures in Tennessee, and a lot of those companies are based in Nashville, so we have a lot of relationships with them already.”
Blackburn looks to push payment reform and regulatory relief.
“There is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicade,” said the spokesman. “We are really looking forward to tackling some of those issues to preserve access for future generations.”
A lot of the issues facing Blackburn and the SFC stem from the drug pricing negotiations during the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) negotiations, according to the spokesman. The IRA is a federal law passed in 2022 that claims to “curb inflation by reducing the deficit, lowering prescription drug prices and investing into domestic energy production while promoting clean energy.”
Much of the IRA’s financing for the law will have to go through SFC.
“It’s an honor to join the Senate Finance Committee and work alongside Ranking Member Mike Crapo,” said Senator Blackburn in a statement. “With inflation still exorbitantly high, we need fiscally responsible tax policies to provide hardworking Tennessee families and business owners with critical relief. I especially look forward to working with health care innovators on ways we can increase access to care and lower patient costs. Additionally, I plan to prioritize and champion strategic trade policies that stop Communist China from cheating and advance competition in the United States.”
A primary focus for the committee will be to plug leaks in the IRS.
“We will have a commissioner up here soon that is going to want to figure out what they (IRS) is doing to slow the amount of leaks they have had of tax payer information. It’s been more than a handful of times already where stuff has appeared on the internet. That is unacceptable and we need to know what they are doing to stop it,” said the spokesman.
Discovering how the IRS can redress those aggrieved due to leaks is also a priority, according to Blackburn’s team. But they aren’t looking to add agents to an already muddled system.
“We are looking at ways to be able to streamline processing,” said the spokesman. “We just want to do what we can to make sure the agency is working properly.”
With Tennessee quickly becoming a huge exporter of goods, Blackburn’s team says trade will become a priority, primarily predatory trade practices.
“We want to figure out what we can do to be able to help businesses with the trade process,” said the spokesman. “Dealing with predatory trade practices from China, and anything we can do to be better trade partners across the globe.”
Senator Blackburn looks to introduce three different bills she hopes will help reduce the federal deficit.
“The senator, as a member of the finance committee will be introducing three different bills to reduce federal deficit by 1%, 2% and 5%,” said the spokesman. “That will help reduce the deficit and spending while helping to reduce inflation. If we can get this across the finish line, it will help businesses keep their cost down as well.”
Blackburn’s team says an increased price of goods and services is affecting main street. She wants to help change that.
“The price of eggs has skyrocketed over 60% recently,” said the Spokesman. “We need to do everything we can in Washington to reduce the cost that hardworking businesses are having to endure because Joe Biden is continuing to spend money on his rabbit hole, left wing agenda.”
Image by TravelScape on Freepik.
