MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CBSDC) - A medical company is blaming President Obama's health care law for the layoffs of nearly 100 people.
Smith & Nephew says a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices in the "Obamacare" law caused the layoffs in the Memphis and Andover, Mass., offices.
"The nearly $30 billion tax on medical devices that took effect Jan. 1, 2013, has impacted a number of companies across the U.S.," the company said in a statement to WHBQ-TV.
Joe Metzger, senior vice president of corporate communications for the company, tells the Memphis Business Journal that they were "not immune" to the tax burden.
"Unfortunately, and in order to absorb this cost burden into our business, this has meant less than 100 positions have been made redundant across various departmental functions in our Tennessee and Massachusetts sites," Metzger told the Business Journal. "The company is providing the affected employees with a comprehensive severance package and outplacement support."
Let's remind everyone that Rep. John Tierney supported Obamacare.
Well here it is! The Boston Globe has endorsed Republican Richard Tisei for Congress.
Tisei's mix of libertarianism and fiscal conservatism makes an excellent blueprint for New England Republicans. Even as the national Republican Party veered to the right during Tisei's years on Beacon Hill, he avoided hot-button social issues and instead staked out a common-sense, reform-oriented direction for the Senate GOP caucus. That approach eventually yielded results; Tisei and other legislative Republicans were pushing nuts-and-bolts pension reforms, for instance, well before the Legislature as a whole was willing to implement similar ideas.
The kind of bipartisanship that Tisei practiced on Beacon Hill is increasingly difficult in Washington. And to be sure, Tisei's stances on some issues may be too conservative for some voters. He promises, for example, to work for the repeal of Obamacare. (Never mind that he voted for the Romneycare that inspired it.) But Tisei, unlike others in his party, isn't in denial about problems with the current health care system, and he's amenable to compromise. He refused to sign Grover Norquist's no-new-taxes pledge. The pro-Tierney ads and mailers that tie Tisei to GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's harsh, unworkable budget plan are based on comments taken mostly out of context.
Tierney's evasions are too much even for the Boston Globe prompting the newspaper to move from its default position of endorsing Democrats.
Richard Tisei is running a great campaign. He remains a class act.
LYNN - Republican challenger Richard R. Tisei said he could work with Democrats, but Democratic US Representative John F. Tierney scoffed at that assertion, in a 6th Congressional District debate today.
"I have a record of being able to work with Democrats," Tisei said in the debate at North Shore Community College. "I don't just talk the bipartisan talk, I walk the bipartisan walk."
But Tierney said it was "comical" to hear Tisei talk about being bipartisan, charging that 99 percent of the time in Tisei's State House career he had sided with the Republicans.
Tierney also argued that, once in Congress, Tisei would vote for Representative Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman now running for vice president, and Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, and other "ideological extremists" as leaders.
Things got testy, but the involvement of U.S. Rep. John Tierney's family in an illegal gambling ring never came up during a one-hour-plus debate yesterday with the Salem Democrat and Republican challenger Richard Tisei.
Instead, Tierney repeatedly blasted Tisei for a Young Guns Action Fund ad - proof that Tisei is "lashing out on a personal, negative campaign," Tierney charged.
Tisei later fired back by holding up a mailer sent out by pro-Tierney forces claiming he would work to end Medicare.
"The reason nothing gets done is things like this get sent out scaring the heck out of everybody," Tisei said.
What's exactly wrong for voting for Paul Ryan? Tierney's strategy isn't working.
It's been a busy summer and I'm a little late to getting around to this, but back in July, candidates for Congress filed their campaign finance reports with the FEC. It's a good opportunity to take a look at how the races are shaping up for Congress in Massachusetts.
I posted a similar entry back in April about how the races looked then.
Right now, the Democrats are guaranteed three wins as Republican failed to run candidates in the 1st, 2nd and 7th Districts. They are very likely to win in another four, as it appears challenges to Reps. Tsongas, Markey, Lynch and Keating aren't nearly where they should be if wins in this state are going to be pulled off. Sean Bielat may be able to keep it close in the 4th District, as he battles with a Kennedy for the right to succeed Barney Frank in Congress. However, what these reports show most of all, is that Richard Tisei has nearly even odds in taking down longtime Rep. John Tierney in the 6th District.
For each of the Massachusetts CD's, I posted what cash the candidates had before, how much they raised, how much they added from their own pocket, how much they spent, and what they have left thus far. I also added a little analysis of the races as well.
A third candidate will be on the ballot in the 6th District in Massachusetts. Libertarian Daniel Fishman has been gathering signatures since last June and submitting nomination papers to local city clerks and registrars throughout the North Shore. It now appears he will have well in excess of the 2000 signatures required to be on the ballot.
Fishman has lived in Beverly since 2003, and his grandparents immigrated to Lynn at the turn of the last century. A developer who writes software to improve Special Education, Mr. Fishman has come full circle -- when he moved to MA in 1994 he worked in the classroom with autistic students.
"It's been said that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I believe that our country is falling down. I can no longer do nothing. The rise of both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement hints at a problem that we are just beginning to realize: our American style of democracy does not scale to 300 million people.
"Look at the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court ruled it as constitutional, but the House has voted to repeal it 33 times. Do we honestly think the majority of the House is out of touch with their constituents? Or are we seeing ruthless winner take all politics? What has happened that in spite of the objections of many Americans, we as a nation are going to force a system upon them that they clearly don't want. Even if you support the ACA, is that what our democracy should be?
"Even worse, the current system set up by the Republicans and Democrats in cooperation with each other is that neither side will show any fiscal restraint when they are in power. Either party is happy to borrow money and spend what the country doesn't have in order to return something to the people. Republicans spent money on wars to give Americans a sense of security. Democrats spent money on Healthcare to give Americans a sense of security. Both parties have conspired against the public by taking out debt in the people's name when there was not the political will to raise taxes to pay for anything.
"We can change the system. The current state of government is absurd to all who see it, but the Republicans and Democrats are masters at winning election. Common sense requires common people, and this year a common effort. How dare we, on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, say that the system cannot change. How dare we not try?
"In the beginning the corporation was created by government to enable efficiencies in business. Now government is created by corporations to enable efficiencies in business."
The fourth installment of our journey around the state takes us to the North Shore, encompassing Essex, Northern Middlesex, and Northern Suffolk counties. This is a rather blue area thanks to the cities of Gloucester and Lynn, but also has the red areas of Ipswitch, Rowley, Boxford, and Andover. It is also home to one of the most competitive Congressional districts in the country, so this will be a vibrant area for state politicos, and even national ones.
Lynnfield, MA - Richard Tisei, candidate for Congress in Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District, today announced he had received the endorsement of U.S. Senator Scott Brown.
"I've known Richard Tisei for 25 years as both a friend and a colleague in the State Senate," said Brown. "We need more independent-minded fighters like him in our delegation if we're going to get the economy moving and get America going the right direction again."
Senator Brown, who was born in Wakefield and grew up in what is now the 6th Congressional District, won the district handily in 2010, as did the Baker-Tisei gubernatorial effort the same year. Tisei was re-elected 12 times as representative and senator in the southern portion of the Congressional District, where a majority of the voters are registered as independents.
"I'm grateful to Senator Brown for his endorsement today," said Tisei. "Scott Brown proved that a candidate with a positive message about economic growth, jobs, and freedom can win in Massachusetts. The people are crying out for change in Washington. That's why they elected Scott Brown in 2010 and why I believe they'll elect me in 2012. America can do so much better and it's time that the voice of the people is heard in Washington."
Many speak about a broken Washington, DC, that cries for new leadership. The CLASS Act is living proof of the problems that plague Washington, and why it is time for change in Congress.
The CLASS Act ("Community Living Assistance Services and Supports") was passed as part of ObamaCare and hailed as a long term care insurance program that would help seniors maintain independence at home and avoid nursing home placement.
At the time, Congressional leaders promised that every senior in the nation would be eligible for this new government run program and that this new benefit would be financed solely by enrollee premiums without federal subsidy. Seniors would pay premiums for 5 years before receiving benefits of up to $50/day to pay for homemaker and other services. In addition, low income enrollees would pay a premium of only $5/month, and be subsidized by those paying full premiums.
If it sounded too good to be true, it was! Even before passed into law, Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, reviewed CLASS for financial solvency.
One day after claiming the entire field to himself, GOP congressional candidate Richard Tisei today blasted incumbent Democrat John Tierney's failure to curb the nation's unsustainable public debt. Tisei, a former State Senator, also scored Tierney for rejecting the proposals made by the Super Committee last year. He said that Tierney was well to the left of President Barack Obama.
Here is the text of the press release:
(Lynnfield, MA, Jan 24, 2012)-Republican Congressional Candidate Richard Tisei issued a statement today in anticipation of the President's State of the Union message to the nation this evening and the failed leadership of Congressman John Tierney on the country's massive public debt.
"Washington has a massive spending addiction. Over the past decade, both parties have spent taxpayer dollars like there is no tomorrow," said Tisei. "I hope that President Obama will offer new proposals to deal with the debt during his speech tonight. Government debt is a ticking time bomb and is growing at levels which are clearly unsustainable. Unfortunately, Congressman Tierney has been an obstructionist on the matter of our astronomical debt."
"It is an embarrassment that today marks the 1,000th day since the U.S. Senate passed a budget (April 29, 2009) . President Obama's own party soundly rejected his FY-2012 budget last year (97-0). As of January 20, 2012, the debt stands at more than $15.2 trillion dollars - and President Obama just last week asked for an additional debt limit increase," noted Tisei. "Annual interest payments on the debt have reached more than $200 billion a year."
"This state of affairs is completely unacceptable. A Congressman should be a trustee and steward of taxpayer dollars. Instead, John Tierney actually stood to the left of President Obama when the President and Congress came to a bipartisan agreement last year that would shave spending and extend the debt limit," said Tisei. "Could there be a better example of how out of touch John Tierney has become on our massive debt?"
"President Obama described that bipartisan compromise as 'an important first step to ensuring that as a nation we live within our means' and then John Tierney arrogantly rejected the bipartisan deficit deal that both Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Scott Brown supported," said Tisei. "On the critical issue of spending, John Tierney is to the left of President Obama as well as Sen. Kerry and is clearly part of the unacceptable gridlock in Washington."
"I share the anxiety of the taxpayers that spending is out of control and that Washington is not solving the problems that must be addressed," said Tisei. "When I go to Washington, I will fight for bi-partisan solutions to these monumental problems which threaten America's future. I will work with anyone who is willing to roll up their sleeves with me as we go forward and begin tackling our massive and unsustainable spending addictions. Having a Congressman who will energetically speak out on these issues is an important first step. With the help of the voters in November, I pledge to be that Congressman."
Our campaign launched a new web video from voters across the 6th Congressional District. If you are ready for a new direction in Washington, and want to join these passionate supporters by endorsing our campaign, please click here to sign up.
(Welcome to RMG Richard - promoted by Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno)
I wanted to share with the RMG community our recent video from the campaign kickoff last week in Wakefield.
We are recruiting volunteers to join our campaign to win in the 6th Congressional District. Please sign up here to join our team and thank you to all of the supporters that came out to our successful kickoff event.
Lt. Governor candidate and Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei throws a road block before the supplemental budget juggernaut that Governor Deval is trying to shove more spending before the election without much debate.
Even with the recent polling showing Cahill a distant third, for the reasons set forth below, I stand by my prediction that Cahill/Loscocco will remain victorious in November - and that Baker/Tisei has no chance of winning this election once Cahill's signatures are certified.
The head of the state's pension fund is stepping down from his $322,000 a year post next month, citing "personal" reasons as well as concerns about a pair of government reforms being promoted by the Senate Republican Caucus.
News reports of Michael Travaglini's announcement referenced two GOP proposals that would limit how much money he and other state employees would be able to make. One initiative would cap the pay of employees at the state's quasi-public agencies at $143,000 - the same amount Governor Patrick makes - unless the higher pay differential can be justified in writing to the Secretary of Administration and Finance. The other would ban bonus payments to the state's pension fund managers during any year the pension fund loses money.
Travaglini - who earned a $68,000 bonus in 2008 and has the potential to make up to 40 percent of his salary in bonus pay - told reporters "I have a wife and three children, and I'm going to provide for them."
The Caucus' salary cap proposal has already been approved as part of the Senate's economic development reorganization bill, while the restrictions on bonus payments were included in the Senate version of the municipal relief bill. Because the House has not yet adopted these two proposals, the Caucus plans to bring them both up again during this week's Senate budget debate.
(Charlie building the party. I can't go because I'm feeding the homeless tomorrow but you should if you can!!! - promoted by Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno)
Join me and Richard Tisei for a Campaign Rally for Richard Ross!
Representative Ross is running in a Special Election for the State Senate seat formerly held by U.S. Senator Scott Brown.
The Special Election is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 11th. The rally will take place this Saturday, May 1st at 12:30pm at Needham Heights Common Located at the corner of Highland Avenue and West Street in Needham, near the Needham Heights Commuter Rail stop.
This is a very important Special Election, so please join me and Richard on Saturday and show your support for Richard Ross for State Senate! Please Click Here to RSVP.
For the past couple of months, Richard Tisei and I have been working our way around Massachusetts – 7 days a week – meeting with voters, collecting signatures, talking to Republican Convention delegates, and raising money.
We have a very long way to go, but right now, it’s all good. This past week-end, we received an overwhelming endorsement from delegates attending the Republican Convention in Worcester. Among the 3,000+ attendees, we racked up 89% of the vote for Governor, and 100% of the vote for Lieutenant Governor (Richard was running unopposed). Since candidates need to receive at least 15% of the vote at the Convention to make the primary ballot in the fall, Christy Mihos, my opponent for the Republican nomination heading into the Convention, won’t be on the ballot in the fall.
By the way, Christy was very gracious afterward, endorsed Richard and me, and bought me a beer the other night. He made clear he thinks we’re the right choice for Massachusetts.
While the Convention had many, many highlights – including a big-time shout-out from U.S. Senator Scott Brown during his keynote address – my favorite moment was standing before the delegates and delivering my nomination speech. Those who’ve heard me before would have heard some familiar themes – state government is broken, our fiscal house is out of order, our business climate is a disaster, and to get Massachusetts working again, we need to cut spending, cut taxes and reform state government. It’s also a message that resonates with voters. A recent poll indicated that 75% of Massachusetts voters think the November elections should be about jobs, taxes and spending.
If you’d like to watch my speech, here’s the link. It’s 20 minutes long – but really really good(!).
The other highlight was the size and enthusiasm of the crowd. I’ve been to several state party conventions, and this was, by far, the biggest and rowdiest one I’ve ever been to. Traveling from one event to another on Friday night, and then working the floor and the stands on Saturday, I realized just how many people were in town for the show. I also couldn’t help noticing how many young people turned out. It was great.
We’re also making major progress on our signature collection efforts. As I’ve said before, “no signatures, no campaign.” On this one, there are no second chances. Richard and I each need 10,000 signatures certified by town clerks to make the ballot. And thanks to our team of volunteers, we are making terrific progress. Don’t let up, though. We need far more than 10,000 raw signatures to end up with 10,000 that can/will be certified.
Many thanks to those of you who are part of our efforts on this.It’s been amazing to watch it unfold across the Commonwealth. And keep going!
This race has a very, very long way to go – but if someone had told me when I jumped in last summer that by the end of April, I’d have a terrific running mate, we’d have locked up the Republican nomination, built a terrific statewide organization, outraised both of our remaining opponents, and were more or less even with two Constitutional Officers in the latest polls, I would have said, “Yee-Haw!”
Like I said, long way to go – but thank you for your help and support.
It's official, on the eve of the big GOP state convention in Worcester, Barbara Anderson endorses the Charlie Baker-Richard Tisei ticket. I assume this is an endorsement from her rather than the organization as a whole.
(Thanks for stopping by. - promoted by Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno)
I wanted to share with you guys the latest news from my campaign. Big thanks to you those who have helped out!
BAKER-TISEI TEAM RAISES OVER $560,000 IN FEBRUARY
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:38:57 -0800
Nearly $1 Million in first two months of 2010
The Baker for Governor and Tisei for Lieutenant Governor campaigns announced today that they raised a combined $561,773.75 in the month of February and outraised their opponents by as much as a factor of six. Charlie Baker’s campaign raised $454,878.77 last month while Richard Tisei brought in $106,895.08, from over 2,000 individual donors combined. In the first two months of 2010, the Baker-Tisei Team raised just under $1 million dollars, reaching $950,224.56 combined.
In February, Baker and Tisei’s fundraising far surpassed that of their opponents, both as individual candidates and as tickets. According to OCPF records, Baker-Tisei outraised Patrick-Murray ($249,737.47 combined) by 2 to 1, and outraised Cahill-Loscocco ($86,594.85) by 6 times.
“Every day, more people are joining the Baker-Tisei team because they know Charlie and Richard will cut spending, lower taxes, and bring back jobs in order to get Massachusetts back on track,” said campaign manager Lenny Alcivar. “Massachusetts citizens know they will put taxpayers first and bring real leadership and real reform to Beacon Hill.” For more information about Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei, please visit www.CharlieBaker2010.com and www.RichardTisei2010.com.
