Health Care Cost Reduction Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Beginning in a few short months, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices will go into effect as a result of the President's health care bill. As George Will recently wrote, this new tax will ``tax jobs out of existence.''

Last year, I had the opportunity to host a jobs and innovation roundtable discussion with leaders from the medical device industry. One of the CEOs that was a part of the roundtable stated that if you're trying to destroy an industry, you're doing a very good job of it.

He was referring both to the delays at the FDA, as well as the medical device tax. In my home State of Washington, there are 17 medical device companies that provide over 8,700 people jobs. These are high-paying jobs with an annual payroll of over $500 million. These companies cannot hire new employees because of this job-killing new tax; 900 people would lose their jobs in Washington State. Nationally, it's estimated 43,000 U.S. jobs will be lost directly due to this tax.

This is one of 18 new taxes brought to you by ObamaCare. This one will cause medical device companies to reduce their research and development funds in order to pay for the new tax.

Who thinks that decreasing jobs in this economy is a good idea?

Patients deserve safe and effective medical devices, and Americans deserve the jobs that create medical devices. This legislation will help preserve what has been just a great American success story driven by our medical devices manufacturers that are developing lifesaving treatments.

I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 436.

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