Ross Clevens, MD

The proposed tax on cosmetic surgery represents a tax on your self esteem and a hidden tax on a desireable good or service. Individuals seek cosmetic plastic surgery for a variety of reasons, but, in nearly all cases, the patient remarks after surgery that their self esteem has been improved or they somehow feel better about themselves. 

Many in the public may view cosmetic surgery as 'vanity' surgery, but most patients are not 'vain,' rather there is just something about themselves that they do not like and would like changed. If you think about it, it is really remarkable and wonderful that in a few short hours of surgery, you can correct some physical feature with which you are unhappy. 

The cosmetic surgery tax is perceived as a tax on the rich. That is a fallacy, since most people who seek cosmetic plastic surgery are middle class and of average means, not 'rich and famous.'  So this is also a tax aimed squarely at the middle class.