Obamacare: Senate votes to repeal the medical device tax but it will not see the light of day

  After years of shirking the responsibility of passing a budget for the political reason of operating under continuing resolutions in order to hide the true magnitude of the sending crisis, while at the same time trying to blame the problem on Republicans, the Senate finally passed a budget early this morning.

  According to this article Orrin Hatch added an amendment to the budget which would repeal the medical device tax (this is the tax which will cause veterinary costs to rise) and the amendment passed by a vote of 79-20.

  This was nothing but a symbolic vote because amendments to budget bills are non-binding, and the budget is DOA in the House, but it does show us that there is growing support for this repeal in the Senate. Orrin Hatch has introduced a bill which would repeal the medical device tax and if it passes and the House approves the measure it would then head to the president’s desk for either his signature or his veto.

  While the repeal of the medical device tax enjoys widespread and bipartisan support it should not be surprising to learn that Harry Reid was one of the 20 who voted against repealing this tax. So it will be interesting to see–if Harry Reid even allows a vote on this bill–how the Democrats will vote when the repeal would be binding.

  Will they stand up for the American people or will they fall in line with Barack Obama when Harry Reid begins his arm-twisting? I don’t think it will come to that and here is why:

  My prediction is that Harry Reid or one of the other 19 Democrats who do not support the repeal will add a totally unrelated  amendment to the bill which will draw off support for the original legislation by Republicans and the repeal will not see the light of day. The propaganda machine will then be set in motion and Republicans will be blamed for keeping the medical device tax in place.

  Technically the Democrats will be right about the Republicans killing the repeal of the tax even though they will be voting against the amendment to the bill and not on repealing the tax, but the end result will be the same. The Democrats will win the public relations battle and the Republicans will have been out-maneuvered once again and will be left holding the bag.