Newt Gingrich: Republicans must pass important bills before Democrats take over House

Now that the midterm elections are over, Republicans have a short amount of time to accomplish a great deal. This is their last stretch of having full control of the Congress before Democrats become the majority party in the House in January, and they should work with President Trump to take full advantage.

First, Republicans must pass the remaining appropriation bills, including spending bills for the Homeland Security Department and the Agriculture Department.

There will doubtlessly be Democratic attempts to stall or block conservative measures in these remaining spending bills, but the Republican leadership must insist on including them. It is very unlikely that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will want to start the 2020 presidential cycle by shutting the government down.

Second, Republicans have an opportunity this year to block a job-killing, innovation-halting, health-care-cost-increasing tax hike. If Congress doesn’t do something to stop it, the tax increase on medical devices – which was born out of ObamaCare and has been temporarily halted by Congress twice due to its destructive consequences – will go into effect.

From 2013 to 2015 – the years this tax increase was in effect – the medical device industry in America lost 28,800 jobs, while in the first year alone investment in industry research and development fell by $34 million.

This is largely because of the way the tax is structured and the complex, competitive nature of the health-care market. Companies can’t directly pass the tax on to consumers, so they must carve the cost out of salaries, innovation and investment.

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