Tax on Cosmetic Surgery

[Paa_Paw]

I just finished reading through posts by Doctors Bermant and Jacobs regarding a new tax on cosmetic surgery.

Such taxes have been imposed before and they cost so much to impliment that they were a net drain on the finances of the states involved. Apparently the federal government is of the opinion that they can do a better  job.

It brings to mind a tax on Luxury Yachts imposed during the Carter administration. The reasoning was that the tax would only impact the wealthy buyers of these items. The truth was that the various industries that made the engines and accessories all failed along with the yacht builders themselves. Thousands of people were put out of work and the impact on the wealthy was non-existant as they simply purchased their fancy toys in countries where they could get them at good prices. Thirty years later the yacht building industry in the U.S. has not even started to recover.

I wonder which third world country will emerge as the new center for advancements in medicine and surgery if this tax is allowed to persist.

So, how is the politics of Hope and Change working for you now?

If all the above sounds really stupid to you, Welcome to the Republican Party.

[headheldhigh01]

i dunno, they're no better, i think they'd tax people for not attending church or being born gay if they could get away with it.  having lived in outrage under republican administrations whose deficits would have made teddy kennedy blush (most of the current bailout was by republican and fed/wall-street establishment holdovers anyway), and whose defilings of the constitution would have given macchiavelli a lesson or two, i suggest a rephrasing: welcome to the libertarian party  

democratic welfare states cost billions.  republican warfare states cost trillions.  

when bush caved in to steel-industry protectionism in an obvious cheap political grab for votes in west virginia, did you ask how the party of free markets was working for you and did you switch parties because of just that one disagreement?  

i disagree with the tax, but they're exploring options same as republicans would, and the republicans are known for the most regressive tax structures of all, meaning they tend instead to tax those who can afford it least.  i will say, i think obama is far smarter than any republican gives him credit for, he's stated and shown more sense about the long-term risks of running deficits than even bush did, whose motto was, in the vice president's words, "deficits don't matter."