True to form, politicians in Washington are pushing yet another tax, but one that closely resembles the European ‘value added tax’ - a type of national sales tax. A VAT is among the most regressive taxes that can be imposed and disproportionately harms the middle and lower classes.

The Democrat’s Health Reform bill contains a provision within its monstrous 2,074 pages (at the time of this writing, it could go up) that imposes a tax on medical “devices.” Naturally they get to define devices however they want, so there is no doubt it will include any and all materials used for care in a medical setting. The language of the bill says the following under the section titled “Imposition of Annual Fee on Medical Device Manufacturers and Importers.”

Each covered entity engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing medical devices shall pay to the [Treasury] Secretary not later than the annual payment date of each calendar year beginning after 2009 a fee in an amount determined under subsection (b).

Furthermore, a VAT on medical devices paves the way to eventually imposing a VAT on everything in this country. All consumers would pay this tax and since the poor and working class consume more as a percentage of their income, they will be hurt the most by it. Americans can expect less money in their wallets every month thanks to the policies of our ruling elite. There’s no telling the extent of the damage that will be done to our economy if the Democrats pass their health ‘care’ bill, not to mention the cap and trade tax also in the works.