Not all Americans use tanning salons, but those who do must now pay an additional 10 percent tax, thanks to ObamaCare socialized medicine.
The tanning-bed tax started July 1. It is the first of several taxes that will be imposed to help pay for ObamaCare, which Democrats in Congress muscled into law in March.
So what can we expect now that tanning salons — many of which are small businesses — have to collect an extra 10 percent tax on their customers? Well, we can expect the same thing that usually happens when a new tax is imposed on goods and services: You get less of those goods and services.
The increased cost to use a sun bed means fewer Americans will go to tanning salons, and those businesses and their employees will suffer. Some will lose their jobs. That would never be good news, but it is especially bad news in the midst of an economic crisis, when unemployment is nearly 10 percent.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, who recently succeeded able Rep. Nathan Deal in Georgia, correctly summarized the likely effects of the tax increase. It is “another kick to the gut of small businesses and will only hurt job creation in the United States,” Rep. Graves said in a news release. “The government should be empowering the taxpayer, not charging them new taxes to pay for their big government programs.”
Exempted from paying the tax is anyone who has a condition, such as certain skin ailments, requiring tanning services as medical treatment.
OK, so what will be the result of that exemption? Very likely, some people will start trying to avoid the tax by “discovering” they have a condition that only a sun bed can treat. Remember what happened when California legalized the use of so-called “medical marijuana”? Lots of people started getting pot legally even though they had no real “need” for it.
But can’t sun beds harm your health? And if so, why should it matter if the new tax means fewer people use them? It matters because extremely costly ObamaCare relies on the tanning-salon tax and other taxes to pay for medical coverage for millions of people.
As with cigarette taxes, the fewer people who use tanning salons and pay the 10 percent tax, the less revenue Washington will get. Our nation already cannot afford trillion-dollar-plus ObamaCare, so how can we possibly fund it if the taxes it imposes do not bring in the money required?
You may see the sun bed tax as something “other people” pay. But have no doubt: ObamaCare and other wasteful federal spending will soon be a tax not only on “other people” but on “you.”