Medical devices tax

The blogger Tigerhawk has posted an appeal for people to write their congresspersons in opposition of proposed legislation that would raise taxes on medical devices. While I agree this sounds like a profoundly bad idea, I was immediately turned off by the letter he posted from the medical device industry association. It begins:

The Senate Finance Committee is contemplating a $40 billion excise tax on medical device and diagnostics products. AdvaMed strongly supports the Committee's health care reform efforts and has worked cooperatively with Congressional leaders to advance the goals of health care reform; however this medical device tax is bad policy that AdvaMed opposes.

As I have written before, big government and big business are not inherently opposed to one another, and in fact like to keep close company. That's what makes it difficult for me to sympathize with their plight in this instance -- if you give the scorpion a ride, don't be surprised when you get stung.