And then, there is the tax you to pay for Nebraska

So, how do we pay for Nebraska’s windfall?

First, we tax tanning salons.  Yup, you read that right, tanning salons must now impose a 10 percent sales tax on any visit you make to one.  After all, the UV rays you receive at a tanning salon cause skin cancer, thus, a perfect target for increased taxes… much like cigarettes, and alcohol.  Before you “turn the page” and say, “well, that doesn’t apply to me”, understand this is the first time the federal government has ever imposed a national sales tax on anything.

Just asking…how long will it be before we see a national sales tax on just about anything else you can think of.  The rational, of course, will be that “heck we’ve imposed a national sales tax before (tanning salons), so let’s do it again”.

Thank you Senator Nelson for making that inroad.

Then, to help out the “impoverished” state of Nebraska, Senator Reid (D-Nev.) has agreed to raise the employment tax for Medicare from an additional .5 percent (as originally planned) to an additional .9 percent.  Of course, your employer must match that increase, so, we are really looking at an additional 1.8 percent tax increase on wages.

That should certainly help employ thousands of the unemployed.  This additional tax right now is only for folks earning more that $200,000 a year, but, don’t turn this page yet either.  How long will it be before that tax is imposed on everyone?  After all, Nebraska needs the money.

And finally, the ‘doctor” fix is dead.  Under the original Reid bill, the federally “mandated” $217 billion cut to doctors receiving Medicare would be eliminated.  In other words, under the original bill, doctors would not lose $217 billion in immediate (and basically, retroactive) cuts beginning January 1, 2010.

The theory was, if they did, they might no longer take Medicare patients.  But, to pretend that this bill will “lower the deficit by $130 billion”, and to pay Nebraska, the doctors will lose that $217 billion beginning on January 1, 2010.  Before you turn this page, understand that either the “doctor fix” will be in another bill, and, thus the alleged $130 billion in savings alleged by Obamacare will go “poof”, or, if Congress doesn’t make the “fix”, many doctors will no longer accept Medicare patients.

Wow, and all this to save impoverished Nebraska.