In more socialist manipulation of free-market choices, Senator John Thune wants to subsidize gym membership and sports gear with tax-free savings accounts:
For several years, Senator Thune has been promoting the PHIT Act, which would allow Americans to use their tax-free healthcare savings and flexible spending accounts to pay for their active, healthy lifestyles.
“If you want to join a gym, enter your kids in a sports league, need football cleats or equipment, those are the types of things that would be covered,” Thune said [Bridget Bennett, “Sen. Thune Promotes PHIT Act for Tax-Free Gym Memberships & Sports Fees,” KELO-TV, 2023.03.20].
Boy, I don’t know: incentivizing “healthy living” sounds like the kind of socialist plot that liberal coastal elites would cook up… and sure enough, Thune’s co-sponsors are a Democratic Congressman from California and a Democratic Senator from Connecticut. The bill even includes part of the nefarious green/anti-fossil-fuel agenda: the Personal Health Investment Today Act would subsidize bike rentals! How can John Thune have been so duped by the greenies?
followed by mass PT formations a la Chinese style before breakfast…
Jocks will jock.
Jocks will “rock”. Rock-star thin. Ever try to train, daily, for marathons? And keep up a full time job ($180,000 US Senator WITH perks of a Senate gymnasium on-site) and father a family and two homes (one in a Capitol city, and one back on the farm?)
Thune: “… those are the types of things that would be covered,” but he is just renaming TAX EVASION! He and Noem wear skinny jeans all the time, but rock stars just skip the endorphin addiction routine and do drugs instead.
This is how Trump renames TAX EVASION, (just like John Thune):
Trump Org ”grossed up” the $180,000 invoice for tax purposes to $360,000 and added a $60,000 bonus and noted in their records to “Please pay from the Trust. Post to legal expenses.” Starting in February 2017 Cohen was paid monthly installments of $35,000.
Trump’s lawyer paid Stormy $130,000 to keep quiet about having sex with Trump, right before the 2016 election. Rupert Murcoch helped. And remember, Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for lying about having sex.
https://newstracs.com/donald-trump-michael-cohen-and-the-stormy-daniels-hush-money-payment-timeline-and-investigation-highlights/2023/03/20/
This is what the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is considering indicting Trump. It is a misdemeanor, but is a felony if “please pay…” is proven to be intentional.
I am sure Thune and Noem need the tax break though!
Murdoch
Stingy red state South Dakota has fallen to second place behind Montana again as the most lucrative for doctors.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-doctors/11376
Will my pool table at Mollie Malones be covered? It’s free so maybe a free Guinness or two. Coins for washing my clothes, they do smell afterward. It’s all for good mental health of course.
Leslie, by the way, Trump is innocent. He hasn’t been able to have erection for 10 years, let alone win another election.
Senator John Thune (Earth hater-SD) went to DC as one of America’s least wealthy politicians but after nearly two decades in the swamp and helping to pack the Federal Communications Commission with Trump stooges he’s rich!
Mark, I’d be curious to get a complete list from Senator Thune of the sports equipment his bill would subsidize so we can se if that pool table or participation in a pool league would count. S.884, the version of the bill Thune and friends introduced in the last Congress, allows expenditures from those tax-free savings accounts on “qualified sports and fitness expenditures”. S.884 defines that term as follows:
So you’ve got to convince the government that pool is physical exercise or physical activity. Given that the bill’s purpose statement says it is particularly interested in preventing diseases related to being overweight or obese, I bet pool wouldn’t make the cut: while pool requires physical dexterity, it doesn’t burn a lot of calories and help people lose weight.
That does get me thinking, though: pool requires some mental dexterity alongside physical dexterity. You’ve got to think through your shots. Isn’t developing mental fitness as important as developing physical fitness? Shouldn’t Thune’s bill encourage people to join chess clubs and play Scrabble?
Hey, I’m for it if able to deduct my downhill and Nordic lift passes, and my Mickelson Trail pass and biking event fees.
I am no fan of Donald Trump, but Trump haters have been digging for something on
Trump for 6 or 7 years and this hush money deal is all they’ve got? For crying
out loud, give it up.
Actually Edwin, this is just the first, Georgia is next. The rape case proceeds also. The feds are working too but are circumspect while Trump just blathers about. You know of course he is everything, everywhere and all at once.
You know Cory, we walk a few miles every day, I carry a cane, its really for dogs. Several people have fence less dog invisible electric fences. So I carry a nice wooden cane because those invisible fences are like crypto currency vs real money. Now I’m exercising without spending money so maybe a new cane with say with a blade. A new hat, shades, a new antifa t-shirt(don’t worry it’s in Celtic, we have many trumpie DeSantis flags on our routes). This new Norwegian Thune could be a bonus. Now just figuring out what is worthwhile to Thune…maybe I should send him Matthew Desmond’s new book to educate the boy.
Pool and darts at the pub are considered physical activity. If KN’s sauna was covered, bano for everyone! Mr. A- you may get a new pair of walking shoes. Air Jordans are nice. Put them on Sammy boy’s tab. Ka-pow.
We won’t feed kids but we’ll push for vanity activities and equipment? Jeezy, that’s sleazy. Gym memberships remind me of an excuse to wear skimpy outfits and go out to cheat on spouses. Why pay to waste energy? Go help a granny clean her gutters. Boo-yah. That’s hot.
I do like the idea of kids earning their little league and extra activity fees by bringing home good grades with excellent school attendance and noted exemplary behavior. I grew up with friends who would have made great teammates on the ball team but parents didn’t have the entire signup fee. It wasn’t always because beer came first. They just needed help.
I don’t think our DC politician actually wants to share his hoity-toity workout gym with most of his constituents. He might be game for rez ball. Just not at his country club. He needs to get his priorities in order. Kids’ wellness needs to skip from the bottom of his list to the top.
Republicans soon again will revert back to Saint Ronnie’s mantra making Ketchup into a “vegetable” for the sake of cutting back cost of school lunches! While he ate filet mignon for breakfast.