Read almost any statement from victorious congressional Republicans, and you will see the same lines repeated ad nauseam about the mandate they received to change our health care system, starting with a tax most Americans have never heard about. In his postelection press conference, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell spoke at length about repealing the medical-device tax, a 2.3 percent excise tax levied under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help finance it. From House Speaker John Boehner to newly elected backbenchers around the country, press release after press release has been issued about how Americans are yearning for the repeal of a tax on companies that make medical products.

There’s no evidence that voters flocked to the polls to send a big message about a minuscule tax on ultraprofitable medical device companies. In fact, if voters are worried about health care affordability, there are plenty of free-market-oriented fixes that could be implemented to reduce costs, cut the deficit and provide better health care for Americans. These ideas — such as increased price transparency from hospitals, providers and insurers and free-trade-oriented policies that would allow Medicare to import drugs at lower prices from foreign countries — have been resolutely ignored by newly empowered Republicans.

The truth is that the GOP health care fix is not about the free market or patient-driven solutions but about the influence of big money. Rather than finding common ground and helping consumers, the Republican pitch is little more than a payback scheme to corporate donors, with many in the media more than willing to regurgitate the GOP’s donor-driven song and dance about reforming “Obamacare.”

First, let’s look at the medical device lobby. Since the enactment of the ACA excise tax, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, the primary industry trade association, known on Capitol Hill as AdvaMed, has pressed Congress for a repeal. The industry has done everything from hiring a small army of lobbyists to purchasing ads in Beltway newspapers and helping set up an Astroturf (i.e., phony grass-roots) website to generate phone calls and letters on the issue. The metadata from a widely circulated letter — ostensibly written by congressional Republicans demanding a repeal — shows that it was actually produced by an AdvaMed staffer.

Republicans have benefitted immensely from the industry’s advocacy. Campaign finance records show political action committees and executives from major medical device companies gave $2.3 million in traditional donations to Republicans this election cycle. That number, however, is only part of the picture. Medical device firms have also financed the GOP message through undisclosed dark money donations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and YG Action, two undisclosed campaign entities that boosted Republican candidates this year with nonstop television advertising, receive funds (PDF) from medical device corporations.