A Toilet Paper Tax....AreYou Kidding Me?

OK, I said this would be a Non-Partisan blog and I meant it. My first rant is going to be about a bill introduced by Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore). The bill is H.R. 3202 Water Protection and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Items disposed of in waste water, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, toilet paper and cooking oil will be subject to a 3% excise tax, while water beverages will be hit with a 4% tax, “because these products wind up in the water stream and require clean up by sewage treatment plants,” according to the bill. The taxes are designed to be collected at the manufacturer level. Of course, we all know what this means. The tax is passed on to us the consumers, in the form of higher prices on the goods produced.The legislation also cites “climate change mitigation” as a justification for imposing the taxes. The new tax is supposed to bring in $10 billion a year.Now you might wonder if the title of this post is a little misleading. I can assure you it's not. I have read the entire bill, unlike most of our elected officials, and it clearly lists on page 6, "The term ‘water disposal product’ means any of the following: soaps and detergents, toiletries, toilet tissue, water softeners, and cooking oils.Now I'm all for cleaning up our waste water systems. There are some provisions in this bill that are good. Such as "NO LABELING RECOMMENDATIONS TO DISPOSE BY FLUSHING.—In licensing any biological product under this section, the Secretary shall ensure that the labeling for such product does not include any recommendation or direction to dispose of the product by means of a public or private waste water treatment system, such as by flushing down the toilet.’’Meaning no labels on drugs or biological products can instruct the consumer to dispose of the product by flushing it down the toilet. I guess what it boils down to is this. Are we all willing to keep accepting more and more taxes just because the government tells us it's needed to help combat climate change? I'll always do my part to help the environment, but where do we draw the line? Is my toothpaste or toilet paper really causing global warming? I'll leave that for the scientists to decide. But I do know that the price of toilet paper is already out of control considering what it's used for.