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Congressman Ted Yoho calls the Obamacare tanning bed tax racist

At a recent town hall meeting, Republican Florida Representative Ted Yoho (I may call him Yahoo from this point forward) said the following with regard to Obamacare:

"I had a little fun with [John] Boehner and told him about the sun tanning tax. He goes, 'I didn't know it was in there,' and I said, 'Yes, it's a ten percent tax.' He goes, 'Well, that's not that big of a deal.' I said, 'It's a racist tax.' He goes, 'You know what, it is.' I had an Indian doctor in our office the other day, very dark skin, with two non-dark skin people, and I asked this to him, 'Have you ever been to a tanning booth?' and he goes, 'No, no need.' So therefore it's a racist tax and I thought I might need to get to a sun tanning booth so I can come out and say I've been disenfranchised because I got taxed because of the color of my skin. As crazy as that sounds, that's what the left does right..."

First off, Representative Yahoo (I told you...) may want to read the dictionary.

The word disenfranchise means the following:

"1. to deprive (a person of the right to vote or other rights of citizenship.

2. to deprive (a place) of the right to send representatives to an elected body

3. to deprive (a business concern, etc.) of some privilege or right

4. to deprive (a person, place, etc.) of any franchise or right."

A 10% tax on tanning beds is not depriving Representative Yahoo the right of laying on a tanning bed. There's quite the stark difference between depriving a person of the right to vote and taxing them 10% for laying on a tanning bed. In the former scenario, the person is unable to vote and in the latter, they can still lay on a tanning bed.

Also, how is this a racist tax exactly? It's not a race tax so much as it's a risk tax. Tanning beds are notorious for increasing the odds that a person contracts skin cancer. So like with increasing taxes on cigarettes, this tax increase is there to potentially deter some from going on the tanning beds and hopefully going about such matters in a less risky manner.

Representative Yahoo was right about one thing, though - when he said, "As crazy as that sounds..." Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself...

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/05/2413431/rep-ted-yoho-obamacares-tanning-tax-is-racist/

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disenfranchise?s=t

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