Kansas Republicans Tried To Tax Abortions To Solve Budget Woes

Posted by | May 7, 2010 15:07 | Filed under: Top Stories


Republican lawmakers think they can close the budget gap and avoid a tax increase if they tax abortions.

[Senator Mary] Pilcher Cook, a Shawnee Republican, offered the idea as an amendment today as the Senate debates a 1-cent sales tax increase. Her amendment would also decrease the proposed sales tax hike to .9 cents.

She noted that governments routinely use tax policy to effect behavior – cigarette and liquor taxes, for example, or tax breaks designed to spur economic activity.

“If you want less of something, you tax it,” Pilcher Cook said.

Pilcher Cook’s amendment failed 17-22.  Anyway, with fewer than 10,000 abortions last year in Kansas and a $510 million budget deficit, it’s unlikely that even a 10% tax on the procedure would do much to bring money in.  It’s clearly just a political ploy to appeal to the anti-choicers.

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Copyright 2010 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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