MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Vocal opposition to the impending 2.3% medical device tax isn’t enough for a pair of Republican Massachusetts – they want Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) to take action to stop the measure from taking effect on January 1, 2013.
Reps. Jay Barros and Elizabeth Poirier asked Warren to "publicly intervene" to raise support for repeal efforts, which have been at a standstill in the Senate.
Earlier this year Warren decried the medical device tax in and exclusive op-ed written for MassDevice, writing that "when Congress taxes the sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the small companies with the narrowest financial margins and the broadest innovative potential."
The duo of GOP Mass. lawmakers lauded Warren for taking a stand, but called her relative silence on the matter in the past few months "deafening," Masslive.com reported.
"In the immediate term, we urge you to publicly intervene with your party’s leadership and encourage them to allow the repeal of this job-killer to come before the Senate where it can receive a fair up or down vote," Barros and Poirier wrote in a public message to Warren. t"In the event that effort fails, we would urge you to reverse course from your stated intention to ‘move on,’ and instead declare that you will make it your mission – as Sen. Brown has made it his – to stand up for Massachusetts and continue the fight to repeal of this unfair, job destroying tax that targets an industry so important to our state."
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