Remember how, on Christmas Eve 2009, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass Obamacare by a 60-39 vote, with not one Republican voting for the monstrous bill that no one had even read? Remember how the Democrats basked in the glow of their “achievement”?
Those basking and strutting included N.C. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, whose enthusiastic vote, in conflict with most of the people of North Carolina, helped pass the bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said had to be passed before it could be discovered what was in it. I suppose Hagan agreed.
Well, now, it seems, she’s found out that there are a few things in it that she shouldn’t have supported. Well, it’s a bit late for that. She and 15 other Democrats who supported this bill now are calling some of its aspects “job-killing.” Since Democrats wrote this bill, one has to wonder if the job killing aspects are not bugs, but features.
Sixteen Democratic senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act are asking that one of its fundraising mechanisms, a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices scheduled to take effect January 1, be delayed. 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.
The senators, who made the request in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are Franken, Richard Durbin, Charles Schumer, Patty Murray, John Kerry, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Joseph Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Robert Casey, Debbie Stabenow, Barbara Mikulski, Kay Hagan, Herb Kohl, Jeanne Shaheen, and Richard Blumenthal. All voted for Obamacare.
Next time, Sen. Hagan, read the bill.
