Bill Pascrell: “By the way, Mr. Ranking Member, many medical devices are sold to people old, like myself, who are on Medicare. You…”

“By the way, Mr. Ranking Member, many medical devices are sold to people old, like myself, who are on Medicare. You continue to cut Medicare, and you will be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Congress most recently passed a delay of the medical device tax as part of the continuing resolution. This extended the time that they wouldn't have to pay a dime to the health system through the end of next year, costing taxpayers $4 billion. Nothing to sneeze at. Additionally, this year, the industry has stood to benefit tremendously from the reduction in the corporate tax rate, down to 21 percent. You didn't get that break, and I didn't get that break. There is nothing that will lead me to believe these benefits will trickle down to help patients afford the devices they need to survive or lower the price of those devices in the first place, regardless of who is paying for them, out of what plan. I'll go back to the point. We put the ACA together so that it would be paid for. That is why we had to come up with that money, and we did, so you couldn't repeal it. And what you are trying to do is choke it to death. You are trying to bleed it. What you are doing is forcing more and more people--you just went from 20 million down to 17 million because of the subsidies that you wouldn't put through that were in the law, because of the mandate that was originally in the law. And what is the alternative? Silence. Health issues are the biggest issue this year, Mr. Speaker.…”