Posted on 03/22/2013 11:58:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As I mentioned yesterday, the medical device tax that went into effect last January is just one of the many insidious job-killing measures contained within ObamaCare, but it is an especially terrible one. The 2.3 percent excise tax is meant to raise a handsome $30 billion to pay for ObamaCare over the next decade, except that, added bonus: It’s going to stifle innovation and competition in an industry that provides all manner of life-saving medical devices, from MRIs to pacemakers to blood tubes.
And this hasn’t just been a Republican refrain, by the way. Thursday night, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the medical device tax, with more than 30 Democrats joining in:
The vote was largely symbolic, but the 79-20 tally signals strong opposition to the 2.3% tax on device sales that went into effect Jan. 1. Even though the levy is meant to help foot the bill for the signature legislative achievement of President Barack Obama‘s first term, 33 Democrats as well as independent Sen. Angus King of Maine joined Republican senators in voting to repeal the tax.
The vote came as an amendment to the Senate Democrats’ fiscal year 2014 budget, a partisan tax-and-spending blueprint that stands no chance of passing the GOP-controlled House. Still, the solid bipartisan support shows growing momentum for repealing the tax, which lawmakers have argued hurts U.S. competitiveness and costs highly paid jobs.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) introduced the measure earlier Thursday with the support of nine Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
I do wonder that some of these Democrats couldn’t summon these same scruples with the health care overhaul when they were falling over themselves to pass the dang thing in 2010, though. Such a shame.
The vote may have been a symbolic one, but nevertheless, this has got to be kind of uncomfortable for the White House: Congress finally managed to find some bipartisan agreement on something, and it’s over just how stupid of a funding-mechanism idea this medical device tax was to begin with.
Should have never been in there in the first place. Maybe folks will catch on. Obamacare is nothing more than the creation of a new kitty to steal from.
They had to pass the bill to see what was in it.
In a normal world, this would make voters question the sanity of their representatives. We’re no longer in a normal world.
Stupid Party strikes again. Already agreeing to modify obamacare. Kenyancare is a package deal. Let them eat cake and deal with it.
The only reason any rats voted against it is because the big medical outfits are in democrat states.
You Democrats voted for Obamacare - now live with the consequences.
I'm sure the fact that so many medical device manufacturers are located in that area of the country is strictly a coincidence.
20,000 regulations written since the bill became law.
It’s “evolving”
Republicans, if they gave a damn, would have voted “present”.
This is just more proof that the GOP will not fight for full repeal. They are happy to take the K Street cash for votes like this.
They really need to stop lying to us about how hard they are fighting for a repeal.
BS... they’re covering their asses for next year. They’re down with Obamacare 100% and aren’t fooling anyone.
Gosh, did they vote for the bill in the first place? Hypocrites.
The number of Dems who voted for it means nothing.
Attach the same amendment to the House budget, and every one of them will vote against it.
Yep! The Repubs, at least, should have loaded the repeal with all kinds of repeals and changes within Obamacare with the intent of making the implementation of Obamacare much more difficult for the Fed-gov. Then compromise on a few and "relent" to pass the repeal.
“. . . with the support of nine Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.”
Fake Injun...she hatem little guy
Hmm, so the Democrats cave to the rich medical industry lobbyists over a 2.3 percent tax? What do the Senate Democrats have against the fat cats in the medical device industry paying their fair share? *roll eyes* In all seriousness, people really need to start using the liberal language against them. The Dems own this mess, they need to pay.
The number of Dems who voted for it means nothing.
Attach the same amendment to the House budget, and every one of them will vote against it.
Disagree. Those Dems would take the lobbyist cash and remove a tax that hits businesses in their districts hard.
So here we have the GOP voting to fund obamacare. Then a couple days later voting not to pay for it. Unbelievable.
Stuff like this makes me thing the biggest problem in DC isn’t the kenyan in the White House. He will be gone in 4 years. However, the feckless poseurs in the beltway GOP will still be there. Huffing and puffing about a full repeal. All the while pocketing K Street payola.
Why aren’t Republicans yelling from the rooftops, “We have to pass the bill to know what’s in it.” Those are damning words and should be repeated every time Obamacare is mentioned.
I have to believe that they just don’t want to win.
Exactly. The Dems bought obamacare. Time to 1) mock them for their stupidity and 2) insist they pay for it.
Too many death threats for them to just shrug it off. They do not do things like this out of the goodness of their hearts.
Indiana is #5 ~ maybe #4 by now. Hardly a Democrat state.
Correct. The Stupid Party should hold out for getting rid of the whole package, not nibble around the corners like this.
You Normalist, you.
Why did the Regime even put this in the bill? Was there some evil company(s) who supported freedom that they were trying to punish?
It certainly wasn’t for the revenue generated - heck there’s no limit on the amount of Baraqqi/Bernanke/Lew minibucks that can be created.
Hitting home in their districts I see. Maybe they should have spent more time reading bills and less time being gorilla’d by that witch Pelosi and her minions.
Put down the pens, boys and girls, you aren’t getting paid by the page.
The Democrats need money to buy votes.
This is of course sad to like the rest of Obamacare its goign to help kill the last major source of medical innovation in the world.
Medical technology 30 years from now will not be anywhere near as good as it would be without this monstrous as many if not most new ideas will be taxed and regulated out of existence.
It is said conservatives at most allow people to carelessly hurt themselves liberals always hurt & impose burdens upon everyone.
One of the bigger wheel chair suppliers got caught scre**** with the Medicare system. I think this is backlash...and even more dishonest.
Why did the Regime even put this in the bill? Was there some evil company(s) who supported freedom that they were trying to punish?
A lot of the medical device companies getting hit by this tax are based in blue states like MN and MA. Also a lot of obama voters on their payrolls no doubt.
This was originally called the Q-tip law because the first draft of it would have taxed even Q-tips. They modified it to only affect items above $100 and so people would quit calling it that. No idea what state it was in when it finally passed, just knew it was going to have a very negative impact on medical device research.
Just more stupidity or evil (take your pick) from the Democrats and the moron Big Government Republicans that voted for it.
Follow the money. It would be interesting to find out what legislators have investments in which medical device companies.
Even if this vote passed, how could it stand?
There was no severability clause in ObamaCare.
To little? No.
To late? For the 60 or so folks that were laid off by the medical manufacturing company for whom I work... yeah.
Morons for not seeing this coming.
Most disabled people I know voted liberal Democrat and talk about their love for Obamacare.
Let them choke on it with the rest of us....
I'm just asking.
Thanks SeekAndFind.
There are going to be a LOT of do-overs from this administration.
What a mess Obama and his minions created
Agreed. Repeal the most onerous and obviously stupid parts we’ll still be stuck with a monstrosity that kills health care in America.
What we need are market reforms implemented Constitutionally through the Commerce Clause allowing interstate purchasing of insurance, cross-state medical licensing and publicly available prices to stimulate competition.
I thought there was very speciic language in the Obamacare bill that said there could be NO changes or adjustments to the bill.
They are,but the sheep that vote for the Democrats do not know this. This is just another case of the Democrats pacifying and lying to their sheep to get their votes. Nothing more.
ObamaCare in a nutshell - making health care more expensive, driving more people into doctor’s offices, and providing financial incentives for insured patients to demand more costly prescription drugs from their doctors. No wonder they had to pass it in the middle of the night! And no wonder the drug companies were big supporters of this piece of excrement.
“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Needs repeating often.
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