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Senate Considers Tax on Indoor Tanning

First the “Bo-tax” on medically unnecessary cosmetic surgery procedures worked its way into the new health-care plan. Now Senate Democrats are considering an additional tax for the vain and insecure on their indoor-tanning habits. So people who walk into a salon to use a tanning bed or who purchase sunlamps for home use could be saddled with extra fees in their quests to orange themselves by cancer-causing methods. In July, new research showed — and this was reported as though it was surprising — tanning beds are just as bad for you as smoking cigarettes and as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas. Though the proposal is in its very early stages, and officials say they’re not even considering it seriously yet, it might actually be a fairly lucrative revenue stream, since indoor tanners — like cigarette smokers — tend to be addicts. Look at industry poster boy Freddie Fackelmayer. He is probably hitting the booth weekly, if not twice a week, and we all have at least one friend like him who, though they might complain for the first six weeks, would easily pay more to maintain their Oompa Loompa–ness.

Tanning Salons In Play As Potential Health Revenue Raiser [Congress Daily]

Senate Considers Tax on Indoor Tanning