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Was ‘Tan Tax’ Why Dems Lost The House?

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

The Republican Party regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives in a landslide mid-term election victory Tuesday — a victory that arguably traces its origins to voter discontent with old-school politics that spawned the 10 percent tax on tanning services as part of Health Care legislation passed this year.

2010-10-20 Remember Election Day Nov 2 copy“Beyond usual Republican and Democratic Party politics and regardless of anyone’s political beliefs, I don’t think there’s any doubt that voters showed Tuesday that they are angry about how things were done in Washington the past two years,” Smart Tan Chairman Matt Russell said. “And while the tanning community is non-partisan and many of our issues are generally not central to everyone, there was perhaps no more visible example of disgusting political horse-trading in all of politics this past two years than the back-room deal Democrats oversaw that produced the 10 percent indoor tanning tax.”

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, made a back-room, 11th-hour deal with Botox Industry lobbyists to toss aside the $5 billion, 5-percent “Bo-Tax” on elective cosmetic surgery, which had been part of the Health Care Bill, and replace it with a $1.7 billion 10-perent tax on indoor tanning services. The deal went down near midnight on the Saturday before the Christmas Holiday, when the U.S. Senate voted on the Health Care Bill.

“The process that led to that deal is, we think, a perfect microcosm of why voters are mad right now,” Russell said. “Many of the same voters who fueled a Democratic victory in 2008 energized this Republican avalanche in 2010. Partisan issues aside, increasing taxes on small businesses and small business customers because the Botox Industry spent seven figures lobbying against another tax was just plain arrogant and irresponsible.

“It’s clear – voters just don’t like the way things are being done. And our issue was a perfect example of that.”

Reid, the Senate Majority Leader who was at the heart of the ‘Botax for Tan Tax’ deal, was seeking a 5th term in the Senate Tuesday in a race that was closer than usual for a 24-year-incumbent who holds the most powerful post in the Senate.

Many indoor tanning community leaders, galvanized by the 10 percent tax levied against their market without due process, were among many in the small business community who backed and rallied for Republican candidates for national office this year. The Indoor Tanning Association held several fundraising events for Republican candidates and many tanning leaders hosted their own fundraising events.

A Republican victory in the House could change the way the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proceeds in dealing with the potential of re-writing indoor tanning regulation. It is believed that U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican, will become chair of the FDA Congressional Oversight Committee, replacing Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has been a friend of many Sun Scare lobbying groups and, thus, has been an uncompromising and closed-door critic of indoor tanning. In fact, several members of the tanning industry led lobbying efforts this fall for Republicans simply by pointing out that Kingston stood to replace DeLauro if Republicans won back the House.

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