Tanning Tax Fantasy

I wonder how many other fantasy projections were in the Obamacare bill?

Representatives for the indoor tanning industry predict the country will never see the $2.7 billion tax on tanning services the healthcare law is supposed to collect.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that a 10 percent tax on tanning-bed services would raise $2.7 billion over the next decade, but the industry says there simply aren't enough salons or customer traffic to generate that much revenue.

"We call it fantasy land," John Overstreet, executive director at the Indoor Tanning Association, told The Hill. "There is no one in this industry that thinks those are remotely reasonable revenue targets for the tax."

"For our industry, it [the tax] highlights the disconnect between policymakers and the folks that actually pay the tax," Overstreet said.

The JCT said it could not divulge the economic models it used to come up with the revenue estimate. The Senate Finance Committee did not immediately respond to inquiries on the matter.

Roughly 30 million Americans visit tanning salons at least once a year and pay an estimated $7 for the service. Collectively, these patrons would have to visit a tanning bed roughly 3.9 billion times over the next 10 years to raise the amount of revenue Congress seeks.

However, the cost for most tanning sessions are commonly incorporated into a broader membership fee that includes other services or product purchases.

Liberal tax projections are never accurate. They assume that purchasing and spending habits will remain constant even with the addition of a new tax. In fact, people act differently when taxes are added. You pretty much always get less of any activity you tax than you would have had without the tax.

That's why the income projections for Obamacare are full of baloney.