Updated 11/20/2009 3:11:51 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An industry spokesman calls a proposed tax on elective cosmetic surgery unnecessarily punitive.
Senate Democrats are proposing to tax breast implants, tummy
tucks, wrinkle-smoothing injections and other procedures. It's part of the effort to fund the nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul plan.
People are already calling the new plan the "botax."
The proposal would slap a 5 percent excise tax on elective
cosmetic surgeries and procedures.
There's hope that the tax could raise about $6 billion.
Accounts vary on who first dreamed up the Botax, apparently last summer. But a spokesman says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing the plan simply because "we needed money to make the bill work."
Associated Press
