Not ANOTHER Tax? Aren't you taxed enough?

(Ed: Dr. Robert J. Brueck, MD FACS of Fort Myers and Cape Coral FL , feels compelled to speak his piece about the new proposed tax of 5% on cosmetic surgery. His comments follow.)

What a total sham and disgrace this whole concept and idea is.

If our legislators would spend as much time thinking about cost reduction and cutting expenses as they do on taxing us into the eternal abyss with new and creative taxes, we would be much better off. When and where will it finally end?

This administration has created a deficit in one year equal to the deficit in all of Bush’s last 4 years. The spending is totally outrageous and out of control and is creating an enormous Armageddon for America.

I read where the city government of Pittsburgh wants to TAX the tuition paid by all students at universities within the city limits of Pittsburgh. This would raise approximately 60 million dollars a year and go to reduce the pension costs and obligations of city employees!

Did they ever think for one second that these benefit packages and wage structures were out of line and unsustainable? Maybe they should cut benefits and salaries and not create new taxes.

They now want to tax the buying and selling of stocks, but ONLY 0.25% FOR NOW. It’s like a state income tax that the legislators sell to the citizens of a state, with the promise that it will never go above 1.5% and then 5 to 10 years later it’s up to 4, 5 or 6%.

The bottom line is that POLITICIANS cannot be trusted with our money. End of discussion.

In keeping with the tax on cosmetic surgery and the push for health care "reform", we are told that $500 million will come from cuts and cost savings in Medicare expenditures and this will help offset the increased cost of health care spending, so that it will be “budget neutral”.

These are the same people that said a trillion dollar stimulus, ie: pork barrel, bill will keep unemployment under 8% and create 3.5 million new jobs. The result a year later is that we’ve lost 3 million jobs on top of the 3.5 million we were promised which creates a deficit of 6.5 million jobs. Unemployment is at 10% and will probably go higher. In reality, it is much higher because so many people have just thrown their hands in the air and said, "enough is enough.”

The administration claims that there is this much waste in Medicare and my response is simply, "where the was the government 2, 5, or even 10 years ago that allowed hundreds of billions of dollars of waste to occur?" These are the same people who want to come now and control 17% of our gross national product. And of course their response is, if we have this red ink, these loses, this fraud, this embezzlement, all we have to do is tax the people just a little bit more.

The Botox cosmetic tax will be broad ranging, ie: ANY cosmetic procedure, Botox, fillers, dental caps, teeth whitening, braces, etc. the list is endless. This tax is also discriminatory because 90% of cosmetic procedures are performed on women.

These are not sin taxes like cigarettes, which place a tremendous burden on the health care system. This is clearly a tax on the middle class who earn $30 to $60 thousand a year. According to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 60% of all cosmetic procedures are from this income group.

I remember the President saying “NO NEW OR INCREASED TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS” THEN WHAT IS THIS?

This increased cost may also cause some people to risk cosmetic procedures overseas such as Costa Rica and other areas of the Caribbean and around the world. I think most plastic surgeons have seen the results of these people who have gone offshore to “save money”. This will greatly increase their risks.

This tax will also create a new level of bureaucracy to enforce and collect this “new tax”. A while back New Jersey tried this approach and it was a nightmare and total failure. When ,oh when, will we ever, ever learn.

Each and every day my anger grows when I see our government slowly, in unrelenting fashion; erode our individual rights and freedoms.

IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF US TO WAKE UP AND BE HEARD!

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Dr. Brueck is a Board Certified plastic surgeon practicing in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, FL. For more information about his specialties, please visit his web site at Beauty-by-Brueck.com. To schedule a free consultation with Dr. Brueck, please call Judy at 239-939-5233