Taxing Breathing

A reader sent in a link to a New York Times article from over the weekend that reports on how state governments are expanding taxes to a variety of hitherto untaxed services -- dry cleaning, jugglers, funerals, landscaping. "They should tax breathing," was the reader's dry suggestion. Some would argue that ObamaCare's requirement that Americans pay for health insurance or pay a penalty is exactly that -- a tax on breathing. And by the time the individual mandate kicks in, the death tax is also scheduled to return, so you get taxed whether you breath or you don't.