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Congressmen Push for Repeal of Excise Tax
The local operations of a medical device manufacturer may end up being affected by a new tax that is supposed to take hold next year.

Congressmen Bobby Schilling and Aaron Schock -- both Republicans serving the area -- are pleased with a House vote last night repealing an excise tax that would have taken effect in 2013. Companies like Canton's Cook Medical would have to pass on the costs of all the medical devices, which Schock says it also would cause health care costs to go up, and Cook Medical to cut 100 relatively new jobs at a polymer technologies plant, with as many as 1,200 similar jobs that could be axed statewide.

Schock says there's bi-partisan support for the repeal.

"It is something that both Republicans and Democrats agree on, that it's not the right thing for us to be doing -- both increasing health care costs, and costing jobs," Schock said. "The United States has maintained its leadership role in the world in terms of high-tech manufacturing, while we've lost manufacturing to other countries that are low-cost labor."

The bill has yet to pass the Senate.

Meantime, Schock and Schilling also are working on a bill that would help veterans get better access to better health care through providers not a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs.


(An artist's rendering of the Cook Polymer Technologies, when ground was first broken on the facility in May, 2011. WGIL News File Graphic.)
06 08 12 by Newsroom
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