Freshman Congressman Ted Yoho believes the tanning tax in the Affordable Care Act is "racist," according to comments at a town hall meeting Saturday in Gainesville, FL. The Republican congressman recounted a conversation he had with House Speaker John Boehner about how the 10% tax for tanning beds discriminates against people on the basis of "the color of [their] skin.""I had a little fun with Boehner and told him about the sun tanning tax," he told his constituents. 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.’"Rep. Yoho explained the premise of the health care law's "racist tax."
"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, I said, ‘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? By God, if it works for them, it'll work for us."
This past June, the IRS ruled to keep a 10% sales tax on tanning salons. The tax was implemented to help offset the sweeping healthcare bill’s cost by raising $2.7 billion in annual revenue.Yoho is not the only Florida congressman who has blasted the measure for being discriminatory. Although Rep. Allen West announced support for parts of President Obama's health care law, he told voters that the 10% tax on tanning salons was a racist provision. "You want to talk about something that's really racist? They have a tanning tax. I'm not tanning," said the congressman in a constituent event last year.