Thanks to the 62,615,406 individuals who took off their thinking caps and re-elected President Barack Obama, thousands upon thousands of folks are receiving their pink slips now or soon will over the next several weeks or months.  These lost jobs are often high-paying and are disappearing by the hour.

The culprit?  It's none other than Obama's landmark legislation, The Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.

Re-electing Barack Obama guaranteed that the 2.3% medical device tax, a key funding source for ObamaCare, will go into effect on January 1, 2013.  This transfer of money from these companies to the federal government, which is effectively a far higher amount than it first appears, is producing massive layoffs in one of the most innovative and life-saving industries in America. 

Understand that this 2.3% tax is not on the earnings of medical device makers; rather, it's on the top line, meaning the revenues of the company.  So regardless of whether the medical equipment makers earn one red cent, they will still have to pay the tax.

Medical device makers, with a few exceptions, are largely small to mid-sized companies.  They are typically job-creators, but thanks to the ObamaCare tax, they, for their very survival, have become job-eliminators...just in time for the holidays.

Take for example industry behemoth Stryker Corporation, which produces, among other items, a host of orthopedic devices.  Stryker is reducing its workforce by 5% in response to the medical equipment tax. 

It's been estimated that the 2.3% medical device revenue tax equates to an actual 15% tax on corporate earnings for some of these companies.  This is substantial, and all because this industry has been selected to fund Obama's landmark legislation.

The list of job layoffs in this industry is staggering.  Some examples:

• Welch Allyn - a manufacturer of medical diagnostic devices and equipment.  In September, the company announced the elimination of 275 jobs, or about 10% of the company's workforce.

• Medtronic - a medical device maker.  The company slashed 500 jobs this summer and anticipates reducing its staff by another 500 jobs next year.

• Zimmer - an orthopedic device maker.  A total of 450 jobs were reduced this year, with the company announcing that this would save some $60 million, which equates to these jobs having an average salary of about $133,000 per year.

And there are plenty of other examples.

Here's the reality: people are losing their way of life because of this law.  ObamaCare is not free.  It costs jobs, and high-paying jobs at that.  These folks who have lost or will soon lose their jobs have put many years into their educations and technical certifications only to have their jobs cut because of ObamaCare.

Maybe that's part of the whole purpose of this law.  President Obama has been a propagator of class warfare throughout his presidency.  We've seen it since his encounter with Joe the Plumber down to his campaign and present-day talk of soaking the rich with more taxes.  All of this to take from those who have and give to those who have not.  That is ObamaCare; it is the very definition of class warfare.  Take from those who have -- in this case, those who are working in the medical device industry and earning a good living -- and give to those who have not...an evening of the playing field if you will.

Only a president of such skewed thinking as Obama would take from the dynamic and life-changing medical device industry only to fund a massive bureaucracy bathed in inefficiency.  After all, that's what ObamaCare is.

So, as the Obamas enjoy their estimated $4-million holiday vaction, perhaps the hard-working employees of the medical device industry will be on their minds.  The Obamas can send those folks a Christmas card as they bask in the Hawaiian sun.

Chad Stafko is a writer and political consultant living in the Midwest.  He can be reached at stafko@msn.com.