Erik Paulsen: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, Americans have been pleading for Congress to take action to spur…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, Americans have been pleading for Congress to take action to spur economic growth and create jobs. And the House has repeatedly acted to pass bipartisan legislation to get people back to work, and we are doing so once again today. Today in this jobs bill is a provision that I authored to repeal the destructive medical device tax. It is destructive because it is a tax not on profit but on sales. The medical device industry directly employs more than 400,000 people across the country, including 35,000 jobs in my home State of Minnesota. These companies create the lifesaving and life-improving technologies for our patients. But, because of the President's new health care law, the device industry is now facing one of the highest effective tax rates in the world. This device tax has already resulted in the loss of 33,000 American jobs. That is the equivalent of the entire Minnesota medical device industry being wiped off the map. Another 132,000 jobs are expected to disappear or now go overseas. And these are good-paying jobs, Mr. Speaker--$60,000 to $80,000 per job. Eighty percent of these companies are small businesses, employing 50 people or less. I asked one company that I recently visited, with 60 employees: What does the device tax mean to you? It means I have six projects now instead of 10 projects; I will have two fewer engineers and two fewer technicians.…”