#NVSen: Embattled Congresswoman Berkley Doubles-Down On Her Job-Killing Medical Device Tax

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 WASHINGTON — When embattled Congresswoman Shelley Berkley voted for President Barack Obama’s $1.76 trillion healthcare law, it hit medical device companies in the country with a 2.3 percent tax and last week she voted in the House Ways and Means Committee to repeal this tax, but today she voted against repealing this tax.

Medical device companies employ more than 400,000 Americans and this burdensome tax could eliminate 10 percent of the jobs in the industry, while encouraging these companies to move their plants overseas.   

As The Associated Press reports:

The tax, which takes effect next January, applies to everything from replacement joints to imaging equipment but exempts consumer products like eyeglasses and bandages. … U.S. medical device makers employ more than 400,000 people. The industry’s largest trade group, AdvaMed, cites a study it commissioned that concluded the new tax could cost 43,000 of those jobs — about 10 percent — while doubling companies’ tax bills and encouraging them to move plants overseas.  (Alan Fram, GOP plays offense in medical device tax fight, Associated Press, 06/05/12)

“Shelley Berkley thought about repealing the job-killing medical device tax, but once again Nancy Pelosi twisted her arm and convinced her to double-down on ObamaCare,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox.  “Given that the medical device tax could kill 43,000 jobs, it’s clear Berkley would rather stand with her liberal allies than fight for the thousands of Nevadans in the healthcare industry.”   

BACKGROUND …

Berkley Supported ObamaCare

  • Berkley Voted For The Final Version Of The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Health Care Bill That President Obama Later Signed Into Law. (H.R. 3590, CQ Vote #165: Motion Agreed To 219-212: R 0-178; D 219-34, 3/21/10, Berkley Voted Yea)

Obama: “Private Sector Is Doing Fine”

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Despite High Unemployment And Slow GDP, President Obama Thinks ‘The Private Sector Is Doing Fine’

 

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “The private sector is doing fine.” (President Obama, Press Conference, 6/8/12)

 

·         ‘Sometimes I Forget’ “So it was a house of cards, and it collapsed in the most destructive, worst crisis that we’ve seen since the Great Depression… Sometimes I forget…” (President Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Seattle, WA, 5/10/12)

 

‘Meager’ Economic Growth, ‘Anemic’ & ‘Tepid’ Job Creation

 

Current Unemployment Rate 8.2% (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 6/8/12)

 

·         LA Times: “…disappointingly small number of jobs for the third straight month.” (“Unemployment Rises To 8.2% In May As Job Growth Stalls Again,” Los Angeles Times, 6/1/12)

 

·         USA Today: “… payrolls gains were disappointingly tepid for a third month…” (“Unemployment Rate Ticks Up To 8.2%, 69K New Jobs In May,” USA Today, 6/1/12)

 

·         New York Times: “…anemic jobs report…” (“The White House Strikes ‘Recover’ From Response To Jobs Report,” The New York Times, 6/1/12)

 

·         Washington Post: “A dramatic drop-off in U.S. job growth…” (“Markets Tumble On Weak Unemployment Report Amid Fear That U.S. Recovery Has Stalled,” The Washington Post, 6/1/12)

 

·         AP: “…dismal jobs data…” (“US Employers Still Waiting For Sales To Pick Up,” The Associated Press, 6/1/12)

 

Real GDP Growth 1st Quarter 2012: 1.9% (“Table 1.1.1, Percent Change From Preceding Period In Real Gross Domestic Product,” Bureau Of Economic Analysis, Accessed 6/6/12)

 

·         AP: “That’s a meager pace nearly three years after the recession officially ended in June 2009. And it’s too slow to generate many jobs or to lower the unemployment rate.” (“Global Economy At Risk As US, Europe And Asia Slow,” AP, 6/3/12)

Heritage: After Obamacare

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Originally posted at The Foundry by Mike Brownfield

For the past two years, America has witnessed headline after headline reporting on flaws in President Barack Obama’s health care law. And as America learns more about this intolerable act, the opposition to Obamacare continues to grow. Yesterday, a new poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News showed that more than two-thirds of Americans want to see the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare in whole or in part, and only 24 percent would keep the law in place.

In the face of this ground-shaking opposition, the White House is continuing its public relations campaign to save face if the Court rules that Obamacare should fall — a decision that could come by the end of this month. Yesterday, the Administration hosted a health care townhall meeting during which Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius trumpeted the law’s reforms, warned of the consequences if it were to be struck down, and promised that her agency is “ready for court contingencies” if the White House doesn’t get its way.

This is all part of a broader strategy being implemented by supporters of the law. As Heritage’s Rob Bluey reported late last month, liberal groups have planned an aggressive propaganda effort to sway media coverage and public opinion in defense of government-run health care. But as the Times / CBS poll shows, they have a hard row to hoe. And the mountain of Obamacare failures isn’t making their job any easier.

According to a new analysis by the American Action Forum, HHS has missed almost half of its legal deadlines in implementing Obamacare, including the failed Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, which didn’t even get off the ground before it crashed under its own weight. Also this week, Forbes reported on new analyses which conclude that Obamacare’s medical-device tax could destroy between 14,000 and 47,100 jobs while also harming patient health. And that’s not to mention the $502 billion of new or increased taxes and fees that the law imposes, the fact that 35 million people could lose their existing coverage because of Obamacare, higher premiums, continually rising health care costs, increased government control over health care, the negative impact on doctors and hospitals, and the law’s assault on freedom of religion.

The good news is that there is another, better way, as Heritage’s Nina Owcharenko details in a new paper, Saving the American Dream: A Blueprint for Putting Patients First. Owcharenko says that after repealing Obamacare in its entirety, there are three steps Congress should take to introduce a patient-centered, market-based health care system that replaces the president’s government-run plan. Those steps include: 1) Reforming Medicare and Medicaid, which are costing taxpayers more and more while increasingly failing to meet the needs of those of who depend on them; 2) Restructuring the tax treatment of health care, which today favors those who obtain their health insurance through their workplaces without offering relief to those who purchase insurance on their own; and 3) Refining insurance market regulations to help improve the marketplace for individual-based health insurance.

Owcharenko explains that Heritage’s proposed reforms are the right prescription for health care reform following Obamacare’s repeal:

Congress should not try to save Obamacare; it should repeal it. From there, Congress should not ignore the challenges in health care, but instead get back to the basics and pursue policy changes that give control of dollars and decisions to patients, not the government. By focusing on health care entitlements, the tax treatment of health insurance, and commonsense insurance market reforms, Congress would ensure that Americans benefit from better care at a lower cost.

America is struggling with increasingly higher health care costs, but thanks to Obamacare, the country’s health care problems are only getting worse. After Obamacare, it will be up to Congress to deliver reforms that will empower individuals, not bureaucrats, in a new market-based health care system.

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Muth’s Truths: Government Stuck on Stupid: Part 1,347

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By Chuck Muth

Just when I thought our overbearing, busy-body, nanny-state government village idiots couldn’t possibly inflict new stupidity upon my life that would surprise me, I just had to go to the grocery store.

You see, I thought I’d be a good husband and cook dinner one night last week.  So I grabbed “The Boy” and headed off to Albertson’s for all the necessary fixin’s for my not-quite award-winning seafood fettuccini Alfredo.

Since we really didn’t have that many items, I opted to use the self-checkout counter. Naturally, the 5-year-old wanted to do the scanning.  Which was fine by me.  I wasn’t in a hurry and kids need to learn real-life skills.

So “CJ” proceeded to scan:  Bag of pasta…bloop!  Jar of sauce…bloop!  Bag of shrimp…bloop!  Package of Andouille sausage…bloop!  Loaf of garlic bread…bloop!  No problem.  But then we got to the last item.

“Son, that’s glass…so be very careful,” says I.

“SIR, HE CAN’T DO THAT!” the panicked store clerk yelped from her perch in the middle of the checkout area.

“Don’t worry,” I replied.  “If he breaks it, I’ll pay for it.”

But that wasn’t the problem.  Turns out what the clerk was having a conniption over was the fact that the glass item was a bottle of…wine.

“Ma’am,” I tried to ‘splain, “he’s not going to drink it.  He’s not even going to buy it.  He’s simply scanning it.  Don’t have a cow.”

But she did have a cow, and jumped on her microphone to summon forth the store manager post-haste.  I don’t think she shouted “Code Red! Code Red!”  But she may as well have.

To make a long story short, the absurdity of the situation was just too much for me to take.  Since I hadn’t paid yet, I informed “Miss Hysteria” that (a) I wasn’t going to be making this purchase after all, and (b) I had no intention of waiting for the store manager to show up and try to explain this unexplainable stupidity to me.

So it was left-overs for the Muth clan that night.

Now, here’s the thing.  I was initially pretty ticked off at the store clerk for making such a mountain out of a molehill.  But then I realized she was just trying to protect her business from the heavy hand of government apparatchiks who, if scanning alcohol by a minor really is against the law, could have fined the store.

Now, I don’t know if such a law actually exists making it illegal for my 5-year-old son, in my presence, to simply scan a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer (probably is).  But if so, then the law is an ass.  One can only imagine what Samuel Adams would say were he alive today.

#NVSen: Berkley shifts on medical equipment tax

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From Las Vegas Review-Journal:

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., voted last month to repeal a new excise tax on medical equipment, an issue that has been lobbied heavily by device makers.

But by the time it reached a House vote on Thursday, Berkley shifted and ended up voting against repeal, saying a late change by Republicans made it unpalatable.

The bill to scuttle the tax passed anyway, 270-146, but the Nevadan’s change of heart — as well as her vote in favor of a tax — prompted flip-flop charges from Republicans and served as yet another example of how closely the parties are fighting for ground in the campaign for U.S. Senate pitting Berkley against Republican Sen. Dean Heller.

“Shelley Berkley thought about repealing the job-killing medical device tax, but once again Nancy Pelosi twisted her arm and convinced her to double-down on ObamaCare,” said Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Fred Thompson: Why Dean Heller’s Re-Election Race In Nevada Is So Consequential #NVSen

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Link:

My friends, a desperate politician is pretty much willing to do anything to keep control of the reins of power. Exhibit A, B and C are Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

And there is no better example of the lengths they are willing to go than what’s taking place in the Nevada Senate race, where Sen. Dean Heller has stood up for conservative principles and is now seeing the minions of Majority Leader – and fellow Nevada Senator – Harry Reid rain down all sorts of political pressure on him in his re-election bid.

Make no mistake, it’s important for Republicans and conservatives to take back the White House, but it’s just as important that we win back the majority in the Senate. And that is why Dean Heller’s re-election race in Nevada is so consequential for Americans across the country.

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