Whatever one thinks of President Obama's health care reforms, their cost shouldn't be even partially balanced on the back of a single industry.
Yet under that law, beginning in 2013, manufacturers of medical devices will be subject to a 2.3 percent excise tax on their sales.
Thankfully, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is trying to get that unfair tax repealed via an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act that is under review in Congress.
The stakes are particularly high here in Massachusetts, where 400 medical device manufacturers employ some 25,000 workers. We not only commend Brown for introducing the amendment, but applaud his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, for supporting this effort as well.
Last week, a story by the Times' Richard Gaines noted that, for all their clear differences, Brown and Warren are in virtual agreement on the need to press for changes in NOAA's job-killing fisheries policies that continue to drive independent fishermen out of the industry while giving larger and corporate interests increasing control of the catch.
It's good to see these two Senate rivals agree on another point — casting this new tax aside.
It's just what the medical manufacturing industry and consumers don't need.
