I was bitterly disappointed in how Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler voted, supporting the repeal of the medical devices tax that was part of the Affordable Health Care Act. Her support of the repeal, and that of her Republican colleagues, played right into the hands of the Democrats, as usual. The Affordable Health Care Act was passed as a revenue-neutral bill and was rammed through a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law. Now, Democrats and Republicans are in the process of neutralizing the most onerous outcomes by giving waivers, repealing taxes and providing more subsidies to make constituents feel good. Instead, the Republicans need to let this law take the full brunt of its consequences, without helping the Democrats who passed it in the first place. Republican compromise on any part of this destructive piece of legislation should first require the repeal of the whole. Otherwise, these actions just add to the national debt.
If people never feel the pain of this abominable law, then the Democrats win, and the Republicans are complicit in their victory.
John R. Kimbrough
VANCOUVER
