ObamaCare's medical device tax is so bad, even congressional Dems want it gone

There are dozens of reasons to think that ObamaCare was written while its architects were four martinis deep in their five martini lunches. Provision after provision has proven to be unworkable, unsustainable, or ineffective. The whole law is currently collapsing under its own weight, while it exacerbates problems it was allegedly going to fix. Still, Democrats like to pretend it's a panacea. In their mind, it's the end-all-be-all of healthcare law, at least until they can ram single payer down your throat and give the government complete control over your medical life.

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But at least one of the ACA's tariffs is so unpopular, so over the top, and so utterly illogical that even congressional Democrats want it gone. It is, of course, the medical device tax. It's anti-business, anti-technology and, ultimately, anti-patient. More importantly, it hurts medical tech companies, some of which exist in Democrat-controlled districts. So, as the Washington Examiner reports, a gaggle of congressional Dems are demanding its immediate repeal:

The effort, detailed in a letter released Monday, puts more heat on Democratic congressional leaders to support repeal of the tax created to help pay for Obamacare. "Repealing this harmful tax would be a welcome relief for hundreds of innovative job-creators across the country," said Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., on the letter he signed along with 16 other Democrats given to House leaders in both parties. The letter calls for a vote before the Memorial Day recess on the latest bill to repeal the tax. The excise tax on medical device makers has continually put Democrats in a quandary. While Republicans are in favor of repeal, so are many Democrats in states that rely heavily on the biotech industry.

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Democrats, as you may know, love taxes. They've never met one they haven't liked. We don't pay enough of them. Heck, we should be thrilled to pay our taxes, and we should be eager to pay more. That goes double for "evil corporations" whose greed and avarice drive them to the unholiest of sins: profit. This philosophy normally thrives among the statist left regardless of political hazard. Usually, they'll argue in favor of taxes despite public disinterest and in the face of opposing popular opinion. "Taxes" represent the left-wing grail. So ask yourself. How bad does a tax have to be for even Democrats to recognize that it's a political loser? This Bad: Since this was written by Democrats in D.C., it's important to look for the ulterior motive. In this case, it goes like this: Democrats release this letter and claim that they're trying to "fix" ObamaCare. The GOP will probably say "no." They'll correctly argue that ObamaCare is an unfixable mess designed to lead to single payer, and it's in desperate need of a complete repeal. Then, Dems get to claim that those evil Republicans are ignoring their heartfelt call for lower taxes. The problem is that the Dems device tax repeal only makes ObamaCare MORE unsustainable, hastens its collapse, and accelerates the implosion. If the GOP was smart (yeah, yeah, we know) they'd use the device tax as one of a hundred reasons why the entire thing needs to be eliminated and replaced with something better. Since ObamaCare has never enjoyed majority support, it shouldn't be such a hard argument to make. You can read the entirety of the Democrats' anti-tax letter here.

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