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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about 3rd District

Paulsen disputes Obama account of med device tax

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 14, 2012 - 11:56 AM

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White House photo

White House photo

Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen pushed back against President Obama Friday in the ongoing dispute over the $29 billion medical device tax that was slapped on the industry – an important one in Minnesota – to help fund the Affordable Care Act.
 
Paulsen, the acting chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on human resources, has been trying to rally support in Senate to repeal or delay the tax, which goes into effect in 18 days.
 
Asked about the tax by WCCO’s Frank Vascellaro on Thursday night, Obama argued that medical device companies, insurers, and other health care providers will all benefit from the 30 million new customers that the Affordable Care Act brings.
 
“It’s going to be great for business, and they’re doing really well right now,” the president said. “This additional tax essentially comes back to them as new customers.”
 
Paulsen called the supposed “windfall’ to the industry a “convenient myth.”
 
“In reality, utilization of medical devices is heavily tipped towards America’s aging population,” Paulsen said. “Medicare beneficiaries, both elderly and disabled, are disproportionally large users of medical devices and already have coverage through that program. Similar state level reforms in Massachusetts have not resulted in more revenues for medical device innovators.”
 
The president argued that “nobody should go bankrupt when they get sick in this country” and that “providers of medical services should recognize they’re going to get a benefit from all of these uninsured folks suddenly having insurance, and that means they should be willing to do a little bit in order to make that happen.”
 
He also argued that this is not unique to the medical device industry. “Hospitals are doing a little bit more because they know now they’re not going to have uncompensated care in emergency rooms, everybody’s going to have some kind of insurance. Doctors, same kind of thing.”
 
Paulsen says the tax will be a job killer in the industry. He got a repeal bill through the House in June, and has been joined by Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken in seeking its repeal or postponement this month.

Cravaack on Bachmann's Muslim inquiry: "Let the facts go where they go"

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: July 27, 2012 - 7:34 PM

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Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack on Friday declined to join Republican U.S. Reps. Erik Paulsen and John Kline in offering any criticism of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's quest to investigate a Muslim state department employee and others.

"Let the facts go where they go," Cravaack said on TPT's Almanac program.

He said he was asked to sign on to her letters, sent to several federal agencies, which asked for an investigation of potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into the United States government and specifically raised questions about a Muslim state department employee.  Cravaack said he declined to sign because he could not confirm the letters' allegations.

After U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and 2008 presidential candidate, and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner publicly criticized Bachmann's accusations, Paulsen said Bachmann's comments were inappropriate and Kline said they were "a bit over the line."

Asked if he join would join them in criticizing Bachmann, Cravaack, a freshman from Minnesota's northern Eighth District, said: "Michele is going to answer to the charges that were. I say just let the facts go where they go."

Paulsen has strong fundraising quarter; DFL challenger Barnes trails

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: July 16, 2012 - 6:34 AM

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U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen of Minnesota's Third Congressional District has more than $1.58 million banked for his re-election campaign, including $450,000 raised during the months of April, May and June.

The two-term incumbent's fundraising totals have improved since the same point in 2010 when he had $1.34 million stocked away for his campaign.

DFL challenger Brian Barnes raised slightly more than $107,000 during the second quarter and has $56,550 in the bank.

Paulsen's Republican primary opponents John Howard III, had not yet to report their fundraising numbers as of this morning.

Paulsen to give GOP reply to Obama weekly address

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: June 8, 2012 - 1:04 PM

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U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., much in the news this week, has been picked to give the Republican response to President Obama’s weekly address on Saturday.

The selection comes in a week when the House voted overwhelmingly to approve Paulsen’s bill repealing a tax on medical device makers under Obama's health care overhaul.

Thursday's House vote, in defiance of a White House veto threat, moves the tax repeal effort to the Democrat-led Senate, where its prospects look bleak.

Still, Paulsen's selection allows the Republicans to play offense on "Obamacare" during a month when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the landmark law.

Paulsen is the first Minnesota Republican to deliver the GOP response to one of Obama's weekly addresses since August, 2009, when Rep. John Kline got the call and pressed Obama and the Democrats to hit reset button and renegotiate the health care law.

White House threatens veto on Paulsen med tax repeal

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: June 6, 2012 - 4:21 PM

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The White House has threatened to veto a bill sponsored by Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen that would repeal a new tax on medical device makers like Medtronic and other state medical technology companies.
 
Wednesday’s veto threat comes on the eve of expected House passage of the bill, which would be a signal legislative achievement for the two-term congressman, who has positioned himself as a champion for an industry that provides about 35,000 jobs in the state.
 
The 2.3 percent levy on sales is scheduled to start in January to help finance Obama’s health care overhaul, including the expansion of coverage to more than 30 million people who currently have no insurance.
 
The tax repeal effort has the support of Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, along with other Democrats in states with large medical-technology sectors. But to pay for the repeal, House Republicans would curtail tax credit subsidies designed to help low- and middle-income people buy coverage on new government-sponsored insurance exchanges, striking at the heart of the new health care law.
 
Klobuchar and Franken have said nothing so far about the new GOP proposal. But the White House veto threat would appear to diminish the already slim chances Paulsen’s bill had in the Senate, even if Democratic leaders there brought it up for a vote.
 
Paulsen vowed to press on. “American leadership in medical device innovation, and the nearly half million U.S. jobs it supports, is worth fighting for,” he said. “With the backing of more than 240 of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I look forward to bringing this bill to the House floor tomorrow to do the right thing and stop this ill-conceived and wrong-headed tax in its tracks.”
 
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said no decision has been made about whether to act on the House bill. Inaction in the Senate would provide both Klobuchar and Franken a free-fire zone to support the repeal of a tax that hurts an important industry in their state, without having to make the Hobbesian choice between that and increasing the number of uninsured Americans.
 
A statement on the bill by the White House Office of Management and Budget said it “would fund tax breaks for industry by raising taxes on middle-class and low-income families... [and]...refight old political battles over health care.”
 
“If the President were presented with [the bill],” the statement continued, “his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”

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