Skip to main content

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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Another look at "The Nightly Show" with Larry Wilmore

After its first week, I gave The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore a B+ grade. While I didn't think the show appeared to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I also liked the Daily Show  meets Politically Incorrect vibe I got from it, and thought, with the proper adjustments, the show would indeed provide a great fill-in for The Colbert Report . In the show's succeeding weeks, however, I've been less impressed by it and think that if it doesn't make certain adjustments, it could be in jeopardy of losing many long-time viewers of the show's time slot. One major issue I think the show's had to this point is a lack of direction. It's been unable to decide whether it wants to be a comedy show with serious conversation sprinkled in or a serious show with comedy sprinkled in. It's almost as if the show's writers want to give The Nightly Show a Real Time with Bill Maher feel. The problem with that idea or format is the fact Real Time is an hour lon...

My first book review of "Penetrating the Heart of Life: Ambiguous In Thought, Ambivalent In Feeling"

Well, I received my first book review on this poetry-compilation book I completed and published late last year, but have finally gotten around to marketing now. The reviewer gave it 5 out of 5 stars and said: "I enjoyed the poetic journey the writer has taken me on. From darkest days and hopeful optimism to the conclusion of hope realized. The visual images that the poem titled "Room Temperature" elicits, made me think of the song, "Horse With No Name" sung by the band America. In a similar manner, another poem – "Deafening Sigh-lence" reminded me a great deal of Simon & Garfunkel’s song, "The Sound of Silence". There are so many poems in this book that I related to, that I felt a connection to the author and felt that we were traveling on this journey together." http://www.lulu.com/shop/craig-rozniecki/penetrating-the-heart-of-life-ambiguous-in-thought-ambivalent-in-feeling/paperback/product-18677501.html

A closer look at the Scramble With Friends power-ups

I am unashamed to admit that I'm a nerd. My idea of a good time is playing a word game like Boggle or Scrabble. Thankfully, I (and many others) can play such games via Facebook and/or my (our) cell phone(s). While it seems that cheating has become more commonplace in these games (Words With Friends in particular) than San Diego has had nice weather, I've yet to give in to that craze. One element present with the game Scramble With Friends (Boggle) not present in Words With Friends (Scrabble) are legal boosts called "power-ups," which cost a number of tokens from the 15 available. I've now tried all five power-ups, including the latest one which costs money. So, in case anyone's curious about playing the game or giving these power-ups a gander, here's a rundown of them all: Freeze - I think this is probably my favorite of all the power-ups. With the freeze, time stands still for a matter of seconds, which allows you more time to find words and improve...