Apr
3
2010
Taxing “Luxuries” to Pay for Everything
Author: robertinseattle
As part of the new taxation on luxury “health care” items, the Obama administration is now planning on taxing tanning salons. Since the primary clientele for tanning salons – especially in California and New Jersey – are generally white women, does that qualify them for a race or sex discrimination lawsuit?
It brings a scene right out of the Robert Altman movie Popeye where the local tax man starts to think about taxing the air we breath.
And there are more new taxes being considered: Taxes on candy bars and sodas. Now those really make sense too, don’t they? In hard times like these, the few little luxuries that the poor can afford are maybe that candy bar or can of soda pop every once in a while as a small, still-affordable treat. So would that be considered a tax on being poor rather than a tax on something “bad for your health”? Or is it a “luxury” tax?
How about medical marijuana? California and several other states that have already had medical marijuana laws in place for many years have recently decided to legalize marijuana completely so that they can then rake in some serious taxes on marijuana sales. But if marijuana is considered a legitimate “medicine,” then why is is being targeted for taxation when top-selling billion-dollar mainstream drugs such as Oxycontin and Methadone have always been tax-free?
And where does it stop?
