"Tan tax sends bronzed set into slow burn"

[Clio the Leo]

I know my fellow sun-shunners are enjoying this. ;)

Tan tax sends bronzed set into slow burn
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles
March 27, 2010

Eydie McNeill was fuming about the newly passed healthcare bill, but her rage had nothing to do with socialism, death panels or the deficit.

She just likes a good tan, and because of a provision in the bill that puts a 10% additional tax on tanning salon fees, her sessions are probably going to cost her more.

"I'm angry. I'm really disappointed by all this," said McNeill, 51, waiting for a tanning bed at the Tanning Club in Westwood. "It just feels like we're being taxed for everything nowadays."

She was not just thinking of herself. McNeill is a sorority house mom at Gamma Phi Beta at UCLA.

"A lot of my girls tan, most of them, and they don't have a lot of extra money," she said. "They're students, most students live on a tight budget."

The tan tax, which the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated would raise about $2.7 billion over the next decade to help offset the cost of the healthcare overhaul, was one of the lesser known provisions of the hotly debated package.

It was a replacement measure. Previously, the bill contained a so-called Botax on plastic surgery, but the nip-and-tuck crowd was able to get that provision snipped and the tanning levy, which goes into effect July 1, went in instead.

"I'm being singled out by my government, and there is nothing I can do about it," said Wayne LaVassar, who owns 16 salons in Southern California that use ultraviolet-light tanning beds. "Folks that are directly affected don't have a strong enough lobby to be heard."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tan-tax27-2010mar27,0,7737739.story

I think I'll send this to Rep Boehner....

[noamnety]

1. This is hard to process:

"A lot of my girls tan, most of them, and they don't have a lot of extra money," she said. "They're students, most students live on a tight budget."

How does one decide to go to a tanning salon when there's no extra money in the budget? That's just not how I spent my days when I was living in poverty.

[Cha]

4. They're poor but they want

to look good so they go without something else?:shrug:

The tanners need a lobby.

[Clio the Leo]

6. The tanners need....

.... an insurance plan that offers coverage to a good dermatologist.

[LiberalFighter]

15. Some of them probably go without eating so they can also stay thin or lose weight.

Otherwise, that tan wouldn't look as good.

:sarcasm:

[Clio the Leo]

5. They FIND the money.

All of my friends in college would spend any extra money they had on their tanning salon contracts. Sure, they were living off of ramen noodles and shared pizza but they were tan! .... I always accused one friend of having "tanorexia" because no matter HOW dark she got, it was never dark enough.

Of course MY pale behind would never go, spent my loose change on moisturizer with SPF 87. :)

Might have something to do with why everyone thinks I'm 26 .... and not 36.

[Cha]

9. I had a little of that in me..

tanorexia from the Sun. One summer I couldn't get tan enough and then I tamed it down bit. I'm a Leo I need the SunB-)

[Clio the Leo]

11. You're a Leo and you need the sun?

Hellooooo? Who ya talkin' to here? lol :)

I like to surround myself with shiny objects .... makes up for the suns glare. :)

[Cha]

12. lol..I like to feel that Vitamin

D soaking through my skin. Moving back to Kaua'i this year to make it that much more accessible.B-)

[Cha]

13. Ooopsy Daisies

[DRoseDARs]

8. The tanning tax is offset by the extra funds for waaahmbulance service.

Yeah, I'm not feeling much sympathy for people in their position. If they're on "a tight budget" the sun is free. And besides, tanning outside gives something for other people to look at as they go about their day; everybody wins... ;)

[Cha]

2. This does seem kind of weird..unless they're

thinking it's on the order of something that's not that good for you so tax it like cigs, soda, alcohol?

[Hekate]

7. Well they are melanoma machines, so I don't like them on principle.

:shrug:

[Cha]

10. Kind of unnatural..I was in one once..

burned my chest area and never went back.

[Dappleganger]

3. It's a sin tax...

like cigarettes, etc.

[Odin2005]

14. I don't get tanning. I find many women more attractive untanned.

[LiberalFighter]

16. Didn't they come out that those under 18 absolutely must have their parent's permssion

for tanning salon?

[Aramchek]

17. this is what sent Boehner over the edge