The horse trading continues in the effort to jam “health care reform” down the throats the the American public. Until yesterday the Senate proposal included a 10% tax on cosmetic surgery procedures. Nothing particularly rational about that at all…just picking on cosmetic surgeons, presumably because they “make too much money” and what they do is “unnecessary.”

Problem was that the Democrats need the support of the American Medical Society to get “reform” through. They weren’t getting it as long as the cosmetic surgeons were being unfairly singled out for tax.

So what did the wizards in the Senate do? According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the pulled the ‘ol switcheroo and decided to “un-tax” the cosmetic surgeons and tax tanning salons instead. Presumably what they do is even more “unnecessary” than what cosmetic plastic surgeons do.

I guess the salon tanning industry has a smaller lobbying force!

Here’s the problem with politics. ALL decisions are made for political reasons. There’s not a one of them who understands economics. Virtually everything that comes out of Washington comes out for a bad reason.

You cannot stimulate an economy out of a recession by taxing. The only way to stimulate spending is to reduce taxes across the board. This allows more employers to hire and more employees to go out and buy. Its a simple formula but not achievable when every decision you make is based not on what is rational but on what political favors you are buying.