Harvard won an NCAA tourney game and the United States Senate voted 79-20 to repeal a tax — both on the same day last week. “Your old men shall dream dreams,” proclaimed the prophet Joel, “and your young men shall see visions.” Strange things are afoot.

There is nothing the House GOP can do about arranging for more basketball upsets, but there is plenty it ought to be doing to move quickly to extinguish the medical device tax, a 2.3 percent excise tax on every medical device — low or high-tech — sold in the country. In a fixed price market (and many medical devices are sold on such terms), this is a devastating levy. Even when the tax can be passed along, it deeply injures the growth of a vibrant and expanding industry in which the United States leads and should continue to lead.