The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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A SECOND OPINION

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, as I have week after week since the President's health care law was signed, to talk as a doctor, someone who has taken care of patients all around Wyoming, someone who has run the Wyoming health fairs, giving low-cost medical screenings to thousands of citizens around our State, and someone who knows we need health care reform in a way that gives patients the care they need from the doctor they want at a cost they can afford. There were so many promises made with this health care law that I come week after week because there are so many broken promises.

Today I want to remind the body that the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, once predicted that the health care reform ``will create 4 million jobs; 400,000 jobs almost immediately.'' It is now 2 years later, and we know that actually the exact opposite is happening. We continue with high unemployment. We continue with people out of work, unemployed, underemployed, and the promise both from the President of new jobs and of Nancy Pelosi of 4 million jobs is another broken promise. Instead of creating jobs, this new law is destroying jobs all across the country. You say, how is it they can actually be destroying jobs? That is exactly what we are seeing as a result of the health care law.

Recently, columnist George Will wrote about how the President's law will impact Cook Medical. It is the world's largest family-owned medical devices company. He explained in his column that the Democratic Congress ``included in the legislation''--and all the people on that side of the aisle voted for this--``included in the legislation a 2.3 percent tax on gross revenue''--that is not profits, that is gross revenue--``which generally amounts to about a 15 percent tax on most manufacturing profits--from U.S. sales in medical devices beginning in 2013.'' So it is something that is happening very soon. ``This will be piled,'' as he said, ``on top of the 35 percent federal corporate tax, and state and local taxes.''

Mr. Will went on to say that this 2.3 percent tax will be a $20 billion blow to an industry that employs more than 40,000 people, and $20 billion is almost double the industry's annual investment in research and development.

We want them to do research. We want development. We want new and innovative treatments that will actually help people. Instead, this administration--the Democrats in Congress in the House and the Senate and the President of the United States--put on a 2.3-percent tax, a $20 billion blow to those who do the research and the development. This tax is going to lead to ``fewer jobs but also fewer pain-reducing and life-extending inventions--stents, implantable defibrillators--which all have reduced health care costs.''

That is a quote from the article.

Cook Medical is not the only medical device company that is bracing for the President's new penalty on jobs and innovation. In fact, let's take a look at some of those.

Boston Scientific is planning for more than a $100 million charge against earnings in 2013. They recently built a $35 million research and development facility. This is called Boston Scientific--Boston. Where did they build their research center? Ireland. And they are building a $150 million factory called Boston Scientific in China. That is as a result of what we see with this health care law and the impact of what this administration is doing to jobs in America.

Stryker Corporation, based in Michigan, blames the tax for 1,000 layoffs.

Zimmer, based in Indiana, is laying off 450 and taking a $50 million charge against earnings related to this tax.

These are companies that, as an orthopedic surgeon, I say have made new advances in technologies, in artificial joints over the years I have practiced in Wyoming. These are companies that have longstanding reputations. Yet they are laying off people because of the new Medicare law--American workers.

Medtronic expects an annual charge against earnings of $175 million.

Other companies--Covidien, now based in Ireland, has cited the tax in explanation of 200 layoffs and a decision to move production to Costa Rica and to Mexico.

Once again, the column by Mr. Will makes it clear that the President's health care law is destroying jobs and is having a devastating impact on our economy.

In March, Senator Coburn and I released our third health care law oversight report. We entitled the report ``Warning: Side Effects, A Check-Up on the Federal Health Law.'' One chapter in our report is dedicated to the health care law's job-killing Medicare device tax. It is a tax the analyses predict will negatively impact job creation and also--incredibly important for people around this country--will stifle medical innovation.

As an orthopedic surgeon, I can tell you that I have seen firsthand how cutting-edge technology saves lives and also supports jobs across the country. Scientists have invented medical devices, such as pacemakers, defibrillators, and artificial joints, that have improved the quality of life for so many Americans. But now, today, because of this health care law, the future of the medical device industry in America is under attack.

In September of 2011, the Manhattan Institute issued a report showing the devastating impact the President's device tax will have on industry. The Manhattan Institute's report shows the medical device tax will eliminate at least 43,000 American jobs. This number represents more than 1 out of every 10 jobs in the device manufacturing sector. It is not a record the Democrats should be proud of, but it is clearly a record caused by the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, and specifically the President who signed this bill into law.

Not only will this tax kill 43,000 jobs, workers are going to lose about $3.5 billion in wages. This is money these workers could have spent in their local communities to help the economy of those communities and, therefore, the Nation's economy.

So what does all this mean to U.S. device manufacturers? Well, these companies are more likely to close their plants in the United States. They will close the plants here and do what others have done: replace them with plants overseas. Foreign manufacturers will improve their competitiveness compared to American firms. This will severely threaten U.S. leadership in the device industry and in the world. Do we want to see plants closing at high-tech medical device research facilities in States such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin?

Finally, the President's medical device tax is going to increase costs to American consumers. These are the American consumers who said what they wanted with the health care law is care they need, the doctor they want, at a price they can afford. Yet this health care law is going to increase costs to American consumers. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the health care law's tax imposed on medical device manufacturers and drug manufacturers and health insurance providers would be passed through to the consumers in the form of higher insurance premiums. Wasn't it the President who promised that under his health care law insurance premiums would lower by $2,500 a year? Is that a promise the President and Democrats in Congress have forgotten? The American people have not forgotten, which is why the health care law is even more unpopular today than the day it was signed into law.

The administration's own Medicare Chief Actuary, Richard Foster, came to the same conclusion. He estimated these taxes could be passed through to health care consumers in the form of higher drug prices, higher device prices, and higher insurance premiums.

If the administration wants to get serious--and I wonder if this administration wants to get serious--about reducing regulatory burdens and creating good jobs, then the President should start today by repealing his onerous medical device tax. Not only will this device tax suppress job creation and limit economic growth, it will also slow, and perhaps even stop, research and development into new lifesaving medical devices.

We must take action to repeal this anticompetitive, job-destroying device tax before it begins to take effect in 2013. If the White House wants to work with Republicans on progrowth policies, policies that support innovation, policies that get the Nation's economy moving again, then President Obama would support repealing this device tax.

Senator Orrin Hatch has introduced legislation, S. 17, that would do just that. I am proud to be a cosponsor of that bill, and I believe the Senate should take up the Hatch bill and pass it.

As we are now 2 years after the passing and signing into law of the President's health care law, I will continue to come to the Senate floor because this is a health care law that is bad for patients, it is bad for providers, the nurses and the doctors who take care of those patients, and it is terrible for the American taxpayers. We need to repeal and replace this broken health care law.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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