Critics of the medical device tax have had on more than one occasion to fight back against critics of their own, and sometimes the debate gets a little hairy.

Medical device industry lobbying group AdvaMed challenged yet another skeptic who previously called efforts to repeal the tax "narrow-minded and dishonest."

AdvaMed government affairs spokesperson JC Scott wrote in to the LA Times this week to respond to op-ed writer Michael Hiltzik’s characterization of the tax and those who have allied with the medical device industry in advocating for repeal.

"When you tax something, you get less of it," Scott wrote in a letter to the editor. "Americans need more access to innovative, life-saving medical devices, not less."

Scott argued that repealing the medical device tax "would do nothing to undercut the policy objectives of healthcare reform, which is why so many Democrats and Republicans support it."

Hiltzik had suggested that members of Congress, especially Democrats, who had aligned themselves with medical device tax repeal had done so only to please their med-tech heavy constituencies.

More medical device tax coverage from MassDevice.com.

"Many of those Democratic votes for repeal came from states where medical device makers swing a big stick," he wrote, pointing to Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Al Franken of Minnesota.

"Minnesota and Massachusetts are the 2nd- and 4th-largest states, by employment, for the industry, which accounted for more than 1% of Minnesota’s entire state gross domestic product and a sizable half of 1% for Massachusetts," he added. "Interestingly, both Democratic senators from California, the top-ranking state by industry employment, voted against repeal. That may reflect how the industry’s 13,000 California workers account for about 7/10ths of 1% of state employment and its output barely 1/4th of a percent of state GDP. Its relatively modest footprint statewide arguably allowed them to see past parochial concerns and look at the big picture."

Where Hiltzik characterized the fight over the medical device tax in terms of corporate manipulation and political back-scratching, AdvaMed maintained that repeal rests in the realm of sound tax policy.

"Repealing the device tax is an important first step toward overall corporate tax reform," Scott wrote. "It also makes economic common sense."

The industry has bitten back against critics before. Earlier this year a cadre of medtech lobbying chiefs rallied against a New York Times editorial that called repeal efforts "one industry’s hold on the Senate."