Did We Do That?

Back in the days when people still read newspapers, yesterday would have been a "Stop The Presses!!" day--but now, I guess the term to describe shocking news would be "Congress Blows Up Twitter!"  I'm talking about the story that even Democrats are now calling for a halt to the taxes included in the Affordable Care Act:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/democrats-urge-delay-for-job-killing-obamacare-tax/article/2515711#.UMheraxJvWA

The specific concern raised this time is the 2.3% tax on medical devices that will go into effect on January 1st.  It would affect things like dialysis machines, respirators, artificial hearts--you know, only things that the 1% use.  And it would lower the cost of health care by making the equipment upon which modern medicine relies more expensive for hospitals and clinics to purchase--or maybe not.

What is particularly startling about this call to delay the implementation of the tax is that is it being led by Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and John Kerry of Massachusetts.  In fact, Franken describes it as a "Job-killing tax".  Now if Al Franken has come to believe that any tax actually hurts business and kills jobs, perhaps its time to start thinking that the Mayans were correct about December 21st.  Of course, all of the Senators now calling for the delay of the taxes needed to pay for this behemoth public program were the most ardent supporters of the law and voted in favor of it in 2009.  Perhaps Senator Franken should have talked to his good friend Former Senator Russ Feingold about the medical device tax--since Russ was the only Senator to actually read the bill (as he told everyone who would listen over and over again)--rather than take Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's approach of "We need to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it."  (In fairness, Franken did know about the tax--and demanded that it be lowered from an even higher level--since he has some big device manufacturers in Minnesota.  But still....)

So now this leaves Republicans with a bit of a Sophie's Choice.  Do you back the effort to delay implementation of the taxes that are needed to pay for ObamaCare (thus increasing the deficit created by it) in order to save jobs--but then provide Democrats with political cover in the process?  Or do you let Democrats live with the consequences of their decisions--while the American people continue to suffer?  Personally, I think the Left made their bed--now they should have to lie in it.

Either way, this serves as a nice preview for the next four years--as the real impact of the Affordable Care Act takes effect.  Why do you think all of the "good stuff" and "freebies" were front-loaded before the 2012 election?  Kind of reminds you of the old "Take it home today, pay for it next year" sales that furniture stores used to run--knowing full well that it would sucker more buyers into paying even more than they expected down the road.