Podcast: Panel Focuses on State-Led Health Care Reform

Posted on | March 3, 2008 | Comments Off

If you get a chance, you really should give yourself the trouble of checking out the YouTube archive of that House Small Business Committee hearing on health care reform.

Listening to both Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) and Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA), I was struck by how down-to-earth and practical they both sounded. It was all about “let’s just try some things and see what works,” and their differing approaches obviously reflected different political philosophies but they weren’t pious or preachy about why their way was better, sounder or closer to God than that of people who didn’t belong to their political party.

It was quite refreshing.

Otherwise, we’ve got the opening strains of this year’s SBA budget tango and Advocacy’s much anticipated announcement of the top contenders for regulatory reform. Oh, and one reg that made the list was a recommendation that the IRS adjust its rules so that home-based business owners can take a standard deduction for their home office instead of going through all those painful calculations.

I bet you thought Congress had to do that. I know I did — but evidently, it can be accomplished (and probably much more speedily) by a simple rule change. Let’s hope that tackle that one at the IRS in short order.

Give a listen:

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