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Ensign receives handwritten confirmation This doesn't happen often enough. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staft Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold." The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.

[see video in article] We’re pretty macho guys at IHTM, but this exchange scares the hell out of us. Ranking House minority member Dave Camp (R-Michigan) quizzed Thomas Barthold, expert witness and Acting Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation, asking what benefits we’d get from the $1,000,000,000,000 stimulus bill. Camp: Can you tell me, Mr. Barthold, how many jobs will be created as a result of this legislation? Barthold: (gulps) Well, in short, Mr. Camp, uh…uh…I can’t. Camp: So we don’t have an estimate on the number of jobs this would create, either private sector or public. We don’t...