Another Obamacare fiasco: Tax on medical devices

DELTONA -- In the wake of the recent government shutdown in Washington, I learned of another aspect of Obamacare: a tax on medical devices. This will supposedly create revenue to to help fund it, if you can believe that.

Let's check the logic of this. You raise the taxes on an industry to create revenue for the government, but what happens is that the industry has to pass the additional expense onto the users. Things like pace makers are used by the elderly so medical expenses go up and and insurance rates go up.

Let's check the logic of this. You raise the taxes on an industry to create revenue for the government, but what happens is that the industry has to pass the additional expense onto the users. Things like pace makers are used by the elderly so medical expenses go up and and insurance rates go up.

Medical device companies this past January had to start paying a 2.3% excise tax regardless of whether they were profitable.

The government hopes to raise $29 billion through this.

A recent Fox News story pointed out the federal excise tax is "slapped on top of what companies already pay at the federal, state and local level, for an effective tax rate bumping up higher than 50% in many states, heading towards an overall rate of 75%, industry analysts note," adding, "Why bother running a company if the government takes three quarters of your profits?"

An unforeseen consequences is that some of the companies are having to layoff people or move jobs overseas. So basically, the government is costing American jobs as well.

The industry even wrote a letter to Congress in 2012 outlining the consequences with 800 signees to the letter. In the recent stalemate with the government, negotiations have brought up a repeal of this tax that has support across party lines.

Government cannot keep taxing people and companies to create revenue because at some point there will be no more money to get. What happens then: Companies close their doors or move overseas and people lose jobs.

Government cannot keep taxing people and companies to create revenue because at some point there will be no more money to get. What happens then: Companies close their doors or move overseas and people lose jobs.

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