Erik Paulsen: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. I just want to speak to a provision in the legislation that repeals the very harmful…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I just want to speak to a provision in the legislation that repeals the very harmful medical device tax. Mr. Speaker and Members, this will be the fifth time that the House has expressed its strong support for getting rid of this harmful and illogical tax. The last time was just this past June, when the House voted to repeal this tax by essentially a veto-proof margin, and that is because we had Republicans and Democrats voting together to repeal this very bad tax policy. That is because, also, everyone knows basic economics. When you tax something, you are going to get less of it. So why are we adding new taxes to lifesaving medical innovation? Why are we adding new taxes to an industry that is 98 percent small businesses with less than 500 employees? Why are we adding new taxes to an industry that has good, high-paying jobs for wage earners? And why we adding new taxes to an industry that has a trade surplus? We should be promoting this industry as much as possible. ObamaCare's medical device tax makes zero sense. That is because it is not a tax on profit; it is a tax on the revenue, on the sales of these innovative companies. So now some small businesses have over a 70 percent effective tax rate. It is a tax that is costing us jobs. It is a tax that is stifling innovation. It is harming patients, and it is hurting our healthcare system. Mr.…”