Democrats Admit Obamacare Is a Job-Killer

Byron York reports that 16 Democratic Senators–all of whom voted for Obamacare!–have written a letter to Harry Reid, asking that one of Obamacare’s funding mechanisms, a 2.3% tax on medical devices, be delayed or repealed:

Echoing arguments made by Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a “job-killing tax” — and also impair American competitiveness in the medical device field.

Of course the medical device tax will cost jobs, as will any number of other taxes that support Obamacare. These Democrats are latecomers to the party, and they would have more credibility if they had not voted for the bill in the first place. I suspect that what is going on here is that these Democrats know there is no chance the medical device tax will be repealed, but they want whatever political cover may come from having complained about it, notwithstanding that they voted for the tax.

As Byron notes, these 16 Senators come from states where significant medical device facilities are located. Byron points out that both of Minnesota’s Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, signed the letter to Reid. Minnesota is home to Medtronic, the world’s largest maker of medical devices, as well as other medical device companies. So Franken and Klobuchar dealt a severe blow to the local economy by voting for Obamacare, and now they are trying to distance themselves from the inevitable consequences of their votes. We will see how well that works.

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