WASHINGTON (AP) — Scoffing at a White House veto threat, the House voted Thursday to repeal a tax on medical device makers that Republicans cast as a job-killing levy that would stifle an innovative industry.

Lawmakers approved the measure 270-146, with three-dozen Democrats from states with a heavy presence of medical equipment makers like Minnesota and Pennsylvania joining majority Republicans. Most Democrats said the bill was yet another GOP attempt to weaken President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which created the tax to help pay for that law's expansion of health care coverage to 30 million Americans.

The election-year clash over the bill sponsored by Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., was the latest between the two parties to mix the themes of taxes, jobs, fairness and Obama's health care law as each side hunts for ways to appeal to voters.