A last minute deal was cut on the Senate floor to switch the originally proposed tax on cosmetic procedures for an equal percentage tax on tanning salons. Lobbyists for the cosmetic industry had pushed hard for the removal of the tax. Tanning salon small business owners were caught off guard. Breaking News from the LA Times:
Senate plan would tax tanning servicesJennifer Fermino at the NY Post opines this morning:
Democrats replace the 'botax' on cosmetic procedures with a 10% sales tax on the use of tanning beds, citing skin cancer concerns. The tax would raise an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years.
Citing concerns over skin cancer, Senate Democrats inserted a last-minute provision into their healthcare overhaul that would tax the use of tanning beds.
The 10% sales tax would be imposed on individuals who purchase tanning services...
The tanning tax would help pay for the massive overhaul by raising an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years. It replaces a proposed excise tax on elective cosmetic surgery that was previously included in the bill. The "botax" would have raised more than twice the amount as the tanning tax. But cosmetic surgeons, who argued that it would discriminate against middle-class women, launched a successful lobbying campaign against it.
If Botox users could move their faces, they'd be smiling wide over the proposed Senate health-care plan, but tanning-bed fanatics are sure to be seeing red.A number of prominent Democrat Senators and even a Vice-President have been known to have Botox procedures and hair-transplants.
The bill's provisions that will likely sail through the Senate will slap a 10 percent tax on all trips to the tanning bed.
The fake-bake tax replaces an earlier tariff on cosmetic procedures like Botox, tummy tucks and hair transplants, which were scrapped in the latest negotiations.
Blogger Far Right Democrat quipped:
The tanning association trade organization (if there is one) needs to hire better lobbyists and start giving campaign donations to Obama.
9 comments:
Ah, social engineering. Americans should never have started letting the government impose "sin taxes." Yeah, it started with alcohol and tobacco and most people were ok with that. Today it's tanning beds. Tomorrow soda. When they really get desperate for revenue, they'll tax all carbohydrates and say they're doing us a favor.
I don't suppose those good old "it's the economy, stupid" Democrats have thought about the impact this might have on tanning salon business, and thus the impact it might have on how many employees tanning salons employ and how much they pay them. Nothing like an assault on small business to stimulate the economy.
So then, Nate, why do partisan Libertarians such as yourself, insist on continuing with that total bullshit line, "golly gee, Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats..."
Are you aware that by Christmas Eve we are likely to have a vote in the Senate completely and totally down partisan lines: All 40 Republicans including Snowe and Collins, voting against the most extreme totalitarian measure to ever be introduced into the United States Congress in 230 years.
And what will the Libertarian Party reaction be? They'll find some ways to still blame the Republicans for the bill, or say "well, the Republicans didn't fight hard enough against it."
Eric, I'm not a partisan Libertarian. I'm not sure where you got that. I'm a Republican. I'm guessing you think I'm a large-L Libertarian because I disagree with you on gays in the military.
My blog, From the Rust Belt (http://fromtherustbelt.wordpress.com/) consistently favors Republican candidates, Republican institutions, and Republican ideas. I would never be a Libertarian because I strongly disagree with them on matters of foreign policy, national security, and military intervention. As I say on my blog, my favorite congressman is Aaron Schock. My favorite senator is Jim DeMint. My favorite potential presidential candidate is Sarah Palin.
You shouldn't assume just because someone disagrees with you on one issue that he or she is not a Republican and is in fact a Libertarian. I disagree with Libertarians on many things and, besides, I don't believe they're electorally viable.
Oh, I think I know where you got it. When I said your position on gays in the military was "Republican" but not "Libertarian."
I stand by that. Exclusion of gays from the military is part of the GOP platform and something that I, as a libertarian Republican who favors letting gays enlist, disagree with. There are a smattering of other social issues that put me at odds with the party, but on everything else -- fiscal policy, economic policy, free trade, foreign policy, national security, a robust military -- we're completely in sync.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Wait a minute. The idiots in DC wants to TAX Botox and Tanning Salons. Uh, doesn't the idiots in DC get Botox and goes to tanning salons? I'm sure they're getting special treatment. Arent ya, Piglosi and Kerry?
Rita-Texas
Okay...who took my picture when I wasn't looking? :-D
The insanity of this administration and congress just keeps going and going and going...
"Blogger Far Right Democrat quipped:
The tanning association trade organization (if there is one) needs to hire better lobbyists and start giving campaign donations to Obama."
This sums it up right here. These people think they own the rest of us, and just like the mafia, if we aren't willing to pay them off in order to leave us alone, our group gets targeted. As much as right-wingers may have ranted in the past about Dems like Clinton, he was harmless. Today's Democrats are the real deal collectivist socialists straight out of 1984 or a Kurt Vonnegut novel. This country is screwed!
"I don't suppose those good old "it's the economy, stupid" Democrats have thought about the impact this might have on tanning salon business, and thus the impact it might have on how many employees tanning salons employ and how much they pay them."
Exactly! Like I said, the thought of Bill Clinton in the Whitehouse sounds great right about now when you compare him to whose running the show today.
A sales tax?
And tobacco taxes? A suitable punishment for schizophrenics no doubt.
Schizophrenia and Tobacco
Post a Comment