The Botax Versus the Tan Tax

If you have plans for some sort of artificial enhancement of your bod, watch out:

Citing concerns over skin cancer, Senate Democrats inserted a last-minute provision into their healthcare overhaul that would tax the use of tanning beds.

The 10% sales tax would be imposed on individuals who purchase tanning services, but would not apply to what the bill called "phototherapy by a licensed medical professional." Most tanning salons are not staffed by medical personnel.

The tanning tax would help pay for the massive overhaul by raising an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years. It replaces a proposed excise tax on elective cosmetic surgery that was previously included in the bill. The "botax" would have raised more than twice the amount as the tanning tax. But cosmetic surgeons, who argued that it would discriminate against middle-class women, launched a successful lobbying campaign against it.

"It is not surprising that one primarily cosmetic business is trying to throw another under the bus by transferring a tax from rich doctors and their wealthy customers to struggling small businesses," John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Assn., said in a statement Saturday. "The irony is that ultraviolet light at least has proven health benefits, where botox treatments have none."

There's one beauty tax I could get behind - a 1,000% tax on men's wigs. Geez, I hate those things.

Last week I saw a guy at San Francisco Airport that had to be around 60 years old and had this jet black dead cat-looking thing on his head. It made me want to do what Elaine did in this classic Seinfeld scene.

That's a tax I can support.