President Threatens to Veto HR 5719, the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008

President Bush has threatened to veto HR 5719, the bill recently approved by the House Ways & Means Committee and expected to see House floor action today. The bill would end the IRS's private debt collection (PDC) program, require that disbursements from health savings accounts (HSAs) be substantiated (i.e. require submission of receipts), and implement a bevy of other tax policies. The president feels that the federal government should continue to waste money on the PDC initiative, because he would rather put taxpayer data at risk and open citizens to abusive debt collection practices than divert federal funds to more efficient and transparent tax collection methods. Bush also objects to the changes to the HSA code, because requiring HSA account holders to prove that withdrawals from their accounts are, in fact, for approved purposes, would result in a lower usage rate of such accounts.
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