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Health/Medical Title: Will GOP Senators Cave on the Medical Device Tax Like the House Did? After the Democrats passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote, Republicans generally (and wisely) united around the notion that they shouldn’t pursue partial repeal or “fixes” to Obamacare. Rather than willingly giving Obamacare a newly bipartisan sheen, they publicly committed to repealing it in full. (The only exception to this partial-repeal moratorium was supposed to be in cases, like with Obamacare’s individual mandate or insurer bailout, where partial repeal would weaken Obamacare and thus advance the cause of repeal.) The party’s focus on repealing and replacing Obamacare has clearly served it well while reflecting public sentiment. Since Obamacare’s passage, Republican membership has increased by more than 30 percent in the Senate and nearly 40 percent in the House. These are massive, historic, Obamacare-driven gains. But what happens when Republicans’ desire to repeal and replace Obamacare collides with their desire to provide relief to a particular deep-pocketed corporate interest? You guessed it: the latter wins — in a landslide. On Thursday, the House passed legislation to repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax, 280-140. Among Republicans, the vote was 234-0. This result can hardly be attributed to Republican members’ phones ringing off the hook with calls from everyday constituents who simply loathe the medical device tax. In truth, the tax is a part of Obamacare that most Americans have likely never even heard of. But the medical-device-tax lobby is willing to throw around a lot of money — which, of course, is all the more reason to make sure that this money gets channeled toward the cause of full repeal. The bill in question now moves to the Senate, where one hopes Republicans will prioritize the cause of repeal over the desires of a particular GOP-friendly (for now) industry. Writing at The Hill, Heather Higgins and Hadley Heath Manning of Independent Women’s Voice lay out the issue well, arguing that Republicans should suspend the tax, not repeal it: “This year, the priority should be to pass a moratorium on the medical device tax that would last until 2017….A moratorium would spare the medical device industry from immediate and near-term financial harm, while preserving the important policy principle that no special interest should jump ahead in line and be permanently out from under ObamaCare while the law exists.” They write that repealing, rather than suspending, the tax invites “three self-inflicted wounds”: “First, doing so impairs the likelihood of repealing and replacing ObamaCare come 2017. Repeal/replace has no deep-pocketed industry allies outside of the medical device industry…. “Second, Republicans will create a terrible precedent for providing special relief to individual corporate interests…. “Third, attending to these corporate interests will send precisely the wrong message to Americans about the seriousness of the GOP about achieving repeal, or about caring about people like them.” Higgins and Manning conclude that Republicans should embrace “a strategy that not only works in the short-term to help just one important constituency, but which helps them without undermining the long-term cause of undoing the most damaging law in history for all Americans.” Here’s one final thought: If King v. Burwell goes against the Obama administration, don’t be surprised if congressional Republicans look to made a deal with President Obama — offering to turn Obamacare’s taxpayer-financed, abortion-funding subsidies back on in exchange for (you guessed it) Obama’s willingness to repeal the medical device tax. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Will GOP Senators Cave on [INSERT WHATEVER ZERO OR THE DEMOCRATS WANT HERE] Trick question?
#2. To: TooConservative (#0) (Edited) The medical device tax is an excise tax designed to be an 'excess profit 'tax. Supposedly these manufactures were going to receive windfall profits when Obamacare was passed . The costs of course get passed on to the consumer; which contradicts the stated purpose of lowering health care costs. It takes $31 million to bring a low risk new device through the FDA approval process. For higher risk devices, the cost triples. The tax will adversely affect employment, innovation, and competition in the medical device industry. Smaller firms will have difficulty competing in the market and we'll see the same consolidation of the industry that we see with every other industry that government targets with special taxes and regulations. There is bi-partisan opposition to the tax now so no new deal should be cut to eliminate it. In fact ;Congress should've already passed a repeal of the tax and put it on the emperor's desk. If what is suggested in this article comes to pass then shame on the GOP . I do think that an extension of subsidies ,similar to Sen Ron Johnson's plan will be passed if SCOTUS rules against Obamacare subsidies . The GOP doesn't want to go into the election cycle being accused of cutting off people from their health plans .....especially Senators like Johnson who are up for reelection . Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? #3. To: TooConservative (#0) Will GOP Senators Cave on the Medical Device Tax Like the House Did? That's a mystery that rates right up there with "Will the sun continue to rise in the east?". Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012) #4. To: TooConservative (#0) "would spare the medical device industry from immediate and near-term financial harm" What IDIOT thinks they will simply eat the tax and make less profit? Who doesn't believe they will raise their price to pay the higher tax?
#5. To: TooConservative (#0) "Will GOP Senators Cave on the Medical Device Tax" Cave? Cave? Since when is cutting taxes "caving"? If that's the word we're going to use, fine. Then I hope they all "cave".
#6. To: TooConservative (#0) Caving is what the gop does best.
#7. To: tomder55 (#2) I do think that an extension of subsidies ,similar to Sen Ron Johnson's plan will be passed if SCOTUS rules against Obamacare subsidies . The GOP doesn't want to go into the election cycle being accused of cutting off people from their health plans .....especially Senators like Johnson who are up for reelection . This type of political calculation is why the PUBS won't win the presidency and will lose the majority in the Senate. Why vote if the party you support won't kill the law that makes you property of the state. The country club corporatists in the GOP think that conservatives and Evangelical Christians will support them no matter what. They should have learned when Romney lost to the worst POTUS in our history. Instead their effort has been to down play the social issues and to try and destroy the TEA Party. They are fools and the last bastion of western civilization is crumbling.
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