In January the sale of medical devices will be taxed.

        I have taken it on myself to write our senators in Illinois, about an upcoming vote to repeal a tax.  This tax will begin in January of next year.  It will tax the sale of medical devices.  The tax will be paid by the manufacturers.  Because apparently, if you are a lawmaker, you are either so daft, or so arrogant, that you don't realize the cost to hospitals will go up by the same 2.3% you have decided to tax the manufacturers.  I wonder how the hospitals will make that back?  Yes, folks, it is another indirect tax they are hoping we wont notice, or will blame the hospitals and  not Washington.  

       In a change of format, I will provide the text of the message I sent to our Senators.  The House has already voted 270-146 to repeal this tax so, for now, they are in the clear, on this issue.

Message below:

       I have already written on behalf of my company to you.  I am speaking now as a private citizen.  A 2.3% tax on the sale of medical devices, paid by the manufacturer, will only be added to the cost of the sale.  Hospitals, who can least afford it, and are currently being pressured by new regulations, an increase in the percentage of non-paying clients, and pressure from the insurance companies, (also caused by Washington), will end up paying this indirect tax.  This type of indirect tax should be made unlawful.  It is dishonest and insulting to our intelligence.  In this case it will also either cause the collapse of our healthcare infrastructure to accelerate, or the loss of even more U.S. manufacturing jobs.  I would say thanks for listening, but there is little chance you will ever directly see this. So to the staffer who does read this: please relay my profound displeasure over this tax.  I understand there is a vote coming, naturally after the November elections, to repeal this.  This unfair, unscrupulous, and frankly immoral tax should be repealed immediately, regardless of the winner of the Presidential election, or the political climate.  

End Message

       Here are some web pages that allow you to message the staffer who might eventually summarize what you have written into a thumbs-down.  (Or thumbs-up, you might want to pay more for healthcare.  I'm not you.  I don't know.)  At any rate, here is how to futilely attempt to have your voice heard.

http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=comment_on_legislation   For Mark Kirk

http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact              For Dick Durbin.

Feel free to copy-paste my message.  It might be taken to mean a level of organization, and maybe even scare them into doing their jobs for a change.  

Thanks for listening.

Chicago's Inspector General

       The inspector General made some recommendations to the Mayor to achieve financial stability for the city.  I was not aware that such things fell within the auspices of his job.  No matter.  I am optimistic.  Not because some grandstanding appointee, politician makes idiotic statements.  Not because some of these ideas were clearly contrived simply to make the others appear sane by comparison.  (Yes, I mean the toll on Lake shore drive)  Not because of this flagrant wagging of the dog.
       I am optimistic because within minutes, both the media and the people were saying that this was clearly done for the reasons listed above.  The people of Chicago, despite a history of being assumed to be stupid, are becoming quite a bit harder to put one over on.  I will stop short of saying that the people are wising up; but at least they have become so jaded and suspicious of government that they see past the more obvious smoke screens. Making the few of us still working pay higher taxes and fees, only makes class warfare the norm. 
       What no one seems to realize though, is that there is only one way out of this financial mess.  You see the welfare economy we have put in place after WWII relied on constant exponential growth in order to function.  We allow our jobs to be outsourced, and the people who used to work in factories all transitioned to construction.  This is something we all should have seen coming.  The solution, you see, is to bring back manufacturing.  Also, unlike what the President and his cabinet say; building roads, schools and bridges are not real jobs.  The true wealth of America is not our schools roads and bridges.  Those are symbols of our (now former) wealth. 
       The true wealth of America has always been that each American was allowed to work as hard as they want, to achieve what they want.  Our wealth was that we built what the rest of the world needed and wanted.  The only road back to that level of prosperity is protectionism.  Our jobs are more important than Chinese jobs.  That is the way every other country works: by treating their interests as more important than anything else.  Why are we not doing the same?  It does no good for me to yell for everyone to "BUY AMERICAN!", because we would only be able to buy food then.  And we would need to check sources first. 
       We need to set ridiculously high tariffs on imported goods.  Completed or not.  We need to set in place a 51% ownership rule like every other country.  (All companies, or subsidiaries operating in the country must be at least 51% owned by citizens thereof.)  We need laws that protect the American worker.  Corporations only outsource because the law allows it.  Change that and we will fix our entire economy.  Then, and only then, can we help the rest of the world.