Here's an excerpt:
When ObamaCare was making its way through the House, it included the much-ridiculed "BoTax" -- a five percent tax on cosmetic surgery. But when the Senate Managers Amendment was released on December 19, suddenly the BoTax was nowhere to be found. In its place was the tanning tax -- slipped into the bill behind closed doors late at night, with no discussion or input from those affected.(Read the full text of "Small Business Owners Furious as 'Tan Tax' Begins".)
Indeed, the tanning tax is a metaphor for ObamaCare in general -- burdensome, expensive, petty, thrown together behind closed doors, and blind to the actual impact the legislation would have on people.
President Obama saw fit to crack wise about the tanning tax during his remarks to the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. Meanwhile, out in the real world, small business owners were trying to figure out how they were going to be able to comply with the paperwork and cost burden the new tax would impose. This was a tax that came out of nowhere and came with little helpful guidance from the IRS. Dave Morris, owner of Sunrise Tanning in Mishawaka, Indiana, summed it up this way:I work 65 hours here just to make ends meet. They take 10 percent off of that. It’s going to be really hard.In the same city, Jillian Frank, one of the 40 employees at Fun Tan, said:If business really starts to slow down, I could lose my job.The owner of two tanning salons in Virginia had this to say:It is very emotional to see your dream being literally shattered by someone in Washington.
The Obama administration seems pretty well-practiced in shattering dreams...
