House Repeals Medical Device Excise Tax - Obama: Private Sector Doing Fine!

House Votes to Repeal Tax on medical Devises

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 8, 2012:
The Senate is not in session today! It will reconvene on Monday, June 11th and will resume post-cloture consideration of the motion to proceed to the farm bill, S. 3240. Yesterday, the Senate voted 90-8 to cut off debate on the motion to proceed to the farm bill.

The House was in session to day until 1:09 PM EST. It will be in recess until June 18th except reconvening for for pro-forma meetings on June 12th and June 15th. Today the House concluded debate on amendments and passed H.R. 5882 (307 - 102) - Making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes. The also passed S. 3261 (voice vote) - To allow the Chief of the Forest Service to award certain contracts for large air tankers.

Yesterday, the House worked until close to midnight. House Republicans led a bipartisan the effort to repeal part of Obamacare. They passed passed H.R. 436 (270-146) - amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the excise tax on medical devices. Thirty-seven democrats joined 233 Republicans in passing the bill.  However, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led  146 democrats to vote to continue her 2.3 percent ObamaCare excise tax on medical devises.  Not only is Pelosi willing to push granny off the cliff at the end of her life but first granny or her estate will be charged in the price for the wheel chair the 2.3% tax on the wheel chair.  Now, will the Senate and President Obama support this repeal of the excise tax on medical devises?  Question for Congress: What about the excise tax on Food?

After several hours of debate on amendments, the House also passed H.R. 5855 (234-182) - Making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes.

In what ABC’s Jake Tapper has called “a hastily-announced press conference” to discuss the economy this morning, President Obama declared, “the private sector is doing fine.”

Appearing on Fox News shortly afterwards, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “To argue that the private sector is in good shape it seems to me is to be completely disconnected from reality.” In fact, it was only a week ago that the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the unemployment rate had gone up and news reports described “[a] dramatic drop-off in U.S. job growth,” a “disappointingly small number of jobs,” and “dismal jobs data.” And the AP called the first quarter economic growth rate of 1.9% “a meager pace . . . . too slow to generate many jobs or to lower the unemployment rate.”

The day the May jobs report was announced last week, the AP wrote, “The U.S. economy suddenly looks a lot weaker,” and economists said, “This is what a jobless recovery looks like,” and “the last two months look awful.”

And yet the president, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) did last fall, is insisting “the private sector is doing fine.”

As said previously by McConnell, “The president must be on another planet. You just saw the jobs figures last Friday. . . . We’ve got a very very sluggish economy, a very slow growth rate. . . . I don’t think very many Americans see many [bright spots].” He summarized, “The fundamental issue before the American people is: what is the record of this administration? Have these policies worked?”

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Tags: Washington, D.C., Barack Obama, private sector doing fine, US. Senate, US House, appropriation bills, repeal tax,  medical devises To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!