Susan Duclos:
The quote that everyone should be concerned with comes from Indiana based Cook Medical spokesperson who states “In reality, we’re not looking at the U.S. to build factories anymore as long as this tax is in place. We can’t, to be competitive.”
The tax he refers to is the medical device tax written into the Democrats and Barack Obama’s health care law aka Obamacare, which is one of 20 taxes associated with the law.
(See Comprehensive list of Obamacare tax hikes)
12. Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers ($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for < $100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986
Five manufacturing plants, each plant would have employed up to 300 people, for a total of up to 1,500 jobs that could have been created by one company, but will not be created because of this Obamacare tax.
An Indiana-based medical equipment manufacturer says it’s scrapping plans to open five new plants in the coming years because of a looming tax tied to President Obama’s health care overhaul law.
Cook Medical claims the tax on medical devices, set to take effect next year, will cost the company roughly $20 million a year, cutting into money that would otherwise go toward expanding into new facilities over the next five years.
“This is the equivalent of about a plant a year that we’re not going to be able to build,” a company spokesman told FoxNews.com.
He said the original plan was to build factories in “hard-pressed” Midwestern communities, each employing up to 300 people. But those factories cost roughly the same amount as the projected cost of the new tax.
“In reality, we’re not looking at the U.S. to build factories anymore as long as this tax is in place. We can’t, to be competitive,” he said.
Cook Medical produces medical devices for surgery, obstetrics, gynecology and other fields.
Conservatives have maintained consistently that Obamacare, taxes, and Obama’s onerous regulations, would harm jobcreation and Cook Medical is just one example of how many jobs are being lost from Obama’s policies and agenda.
As the reprehensible left socialists strategize it, . . . kill all businesses, then Government will have to set up new departments to provide the services.
Of course Obama doesn’t come out and say it honestly, he fools his believers with, “We’re just gonna tax the RICH.”
Of course republican business owners are saying crap like this. It’s election year rhetoric. They prefer to keep as much money in their pockets as possible.
Compare the profit margins for medical device manufacturers with those for a variety of other industries.
You will note that profit margins for medical device manufacturers are among the highest for any industry. They’re higher than the pharmaceutical industry.
@Greg:
What an abjectly ignorant, and self-abasing, statement to make. Such uninformed and uneducated thinking is what ruins a great society.
Corporate America is not primarily motivated by a desire for profit, and is indifferent to whether those profits are high or low?
That strikes me as a novel proposition, to say the least.
These guys are threatening to go overseas because of worries about reduced profits.
@Greg: #4,
The hole is just getting deeper isn’t it? Is the light also dimming?
It’s entirely possible that you have a rationalization for such lack of awareness. Some of us are just gifted with other talents, even if we lack reasoning capacities, we might be artistic or athletic, . . . or not.
For others still, it is simply that ideological indoctrination has short-circuited the synapses, blocked the neurotransmitters and ruined the potential for insight, discernment or analysis. Hey, shit happens.
@Greg:
The first link (medical devices) lists “operating profit,” which is before-tax profit. The second link (other industries) lists “profit margin” which is net profit after taxes. The two sources also differ in that the first is selected companies, while the second is industry average.
How… dishonest of you.
It would also be interesting to see the profit margin of individual medical device companies year by year for an extended period — in many cases high-tech companies run at a loss for years before something pays off and the high profit for a few particular years reflects that.
The basic idea that highly profitable industries should pay a special tax for being profitable is kind of a sick notion anyway. In America they are already paying the highest corporate tax rate in the world. “High profits” = “confiscation for social justice” is typical redistributionist leftist crap. (Remember how Obama didn’t care if higher capital gains taxes meant less revenue for the government?) If you motivate a company to leave the country or close, you will then be taxing nothing at a higher rate rather than something at a lower rate.
Thanks for the link Curt.
@Greg
You speak as if it is a crime to choose a business that has high profit margins, why? Other than envy ridden progressives, most people want to see others do well and hope that one day we can choose a business that make us very high profit margins .
As long as they are paying the same taxes as everyone else, why on earth would you begrudge them more money, it would mean expansion and more jobs which equals lower unemployment and better economic growth for the country.
You people don’t even understand that you are biting the very hand that feeds you then you complain when they don’t want to feed you anymore.
If the U.S. government is going to punish those that create jobs and make money, then they have every right to take their business and create jobs elsewhere, in a manner that allows them to make the most.
It is called Capitalism, perhaps you should look it up.
@Wm T Sherman: Very few corporations pay the highest rate. It’s just like personal income tax and non-corporate business income tax (reported and taxed as personal income), there are a multitude of deductions.
@Susan Duclos: I don’t know where you get the idea the Greg is chastising a company for what they’re in business to do—make a profit. He’s just describing their behavior, and its possible ramifications.
But this type of reaction is what I expect of ultra-conservatives. They can’t just take what a person says, they have to twist it around until the meaning is no longer recognizable.
(Sorry Greg—for stealing your thunder—but when these radical-righties start throwing around unfounded accusations about Liberals/Progressives, it kind of gets my ire up.)
@Susan Duclos, #7:
I find such conceit extremely annoying. The middle and working classes do not owe their places in the world to the rich. The rich owe their places in the world to the efforts of the middle and working classes. There seems to be a lot of confusion these days about just who it is that can do without whom.
I always find it interesting when liberals look at a private industry making a profit as an opportunity to take more from that very same company….As have I have mentioned on some other forums, I do not believe that liberals can actualy pin down the definition of “fair share”….It’s a never ending series of taking until the provider gives up and becomes one of the takers, not makers…
@Greg:
I’ll agree with the middle and working classes not owing their place in the world to the rich. However, the rich do not owe their place in the world to them, either.
The only economic group that owes their place in the world to someone else is the poor and lower-income groups. They owe that to government.
@Bobachek:
That is why Obama’s “plan” of $250k/$200k is such horsecrap.
“Fair share” is undefinable, except by those in power. And when it is seen that Obama’s “plan” doesn’t meet the stated expectations, that bar of $250k/$200k will be lowered, and then lowered again, and again, and again.
Only a naive fool would declare that Obama’s “plan” is “fair”.
@johngalt:
Bingo! People seem to think “the rich” owe more than what they pay, more than the capital gains they pay, then they want to rip off half their money again after they die. When the top 10% is paying 70 percent already, using the governments own numbers, that seems more than fair.
@James Raider:
Greg and other socialists believe companies should bend over and take it. Just pay the taxes and be happy that the gracious government allows you to do business in this country.
Besides, Obama made a deal with Big Pharma, so he couldn’t hit them. They probably told him to go after the medical device folks. Crony Capitalism at its finest…….just the way Greg and his ilk like it.