Mass. Congressional Democrats Don't Want to Work With Republicans on Repealing Medical Device Tax Despite Sharing Position
Because politics
Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation have campaigned against the new federal tax on medical devices, agreeing with industry executives that it hurts the Bay State economy by costing device manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Some Republicans also are demanding repeal of the tax — but they are making it a condition of ending the government shutdown.
And therein lies the problem. Despite having the ingredients for a bipartisan deal on a pet cause, Massachusetts lawmakers are not interested. To join ranks with Republicans would mean breaking ranks with President Obama, who has repeatedly opposed tying the funding of government to any other legislation.
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Since the medical device tax is on the table, how about the Dems’ counter with allowing medical devices to be harvested from the dead, sanitized, and reused? A good portion of these devices (such as titanium screws, pins, etc.) were paid for once already by medicare, and they are “good as new” when removed from the dead. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but if you look into the numbers, you’ll find that what I’m proposing is a large dollar proposition.