I love my dog, Bella.
She comes to work with me everyday, is fed the best foods (including people food), and has the run of the house.
I’d do anything for her.
Anything, that is, except make other people pay for her care.
According to Howard Gleckman of Tax Vox, one Congressman has done just that:
Representative Thaddeus McCotter, a fourth-term Republican from Livonia MI, has introduced the HAPPY Act—the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years Act. It is HR 3501, and it was introduced on July 31.
You could look it up.
The HAPPY Act would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $3,500-a-year in pet care expenses, including vet care.
How out of touch with reality must a person be to propose, in a time of rampant unemployment, huge deficits, two wars and 40 million uninsured people, that the government subsidize the care of ferrets?
Last fall I wrote about this scatterbrain McCotter in a blog post titled Congressman says Bailout Plan Voted Down Because “People Didn’t Want it.”
How do guys like this get elected?
Maybe we should have an intelligence test for voters after all.
9 responses so far ↓
1 McCotter IsABonehead // Aug 18, 2009 at 10:30 am
I didn’t realize the unemployment rate in Michigan had been lowered to an acceptable level. But apparently McCotter thinks 16% unemployment is OK.
Did you know that if you rearrange the letters in the name “Thadeus McCotter” you can also spell the word “BONEHEAD LOSER”?
I hope the HAPPY ACT is another one of McCotter’s sick jokes.
2 Sue // Sep 1, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I just love how ignorant liberals spin everything around into something it’s not. “I love my dog Bella. I’d do anything for her except make other people pay for her care.” The Happy Act would not make other people pay for your dogs care. In a horrible econcomy a tax right off of any kind is what people need. The majority of Americans own a pet, so this would benefit tons of people of all income levels. If he had proposed a way to keep up all the pathetic drains on society who are perfectly able to work, but don’t even try to get a job because they’re too lazy you would be all over it like flies on a dead body.
3 Peter // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:04 am
Sue,
I’ve been called many things in my life but never a liberal. Read my blog a little more closely and you’ll see how absurd that is.
Thaddeus McCotter may be a Republican, but he’s done some birdbrain things before and this pet care tax break is just the latest. We have more important things to address than funding Fluffy’s catnip.
By the way, when you give a tax break to one segment of society (pet owners, in this case) you are, by definition, forcing other segments (non pet owners) to fund it.
4 Max // Sep 23, 2009 at 10:53 am
For the millions of people facing the awful thought of abandoning their companion animals or surrendering them to a shelter where they will probably be killed because they cannot afford veterinary care, this is no joke. As Gandhi said, “The greatness of its society and its moral progress can be judged by how it treats its animals.”
5 Peter // Sep 23, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Max,
The greatness of a society is even better judged by how it treats its people.
Every dollar you give to an animal is a dollar that could have been given to a child.
Priorities.
6 Pet Tax Subsidy Act Gets Mauled // Dec 11, 2009 at 9:53 am
[...] couldn’t agree more and said so back in August when McCotter first proposed his voter-pandering bill: How out of touch with reality [...]
7 Had Enough // Mar 12, 2010 at 6:12 pm
You should be more concerned why companies like Franklin Hills Country Club knowingly have illegal aliens, evade paying taxes, and tax fraud. Leave Fido alone and lets enforce the current laws bone head….
8 Peter // Mar 12, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Had Enough,
I assume you are directing bone head comment at McCotter and not me.
9 angela // Apr 12, 2010 at 6:33 pm
You site that other people, who may not have a pet, are being forced to pay for the upkeep of others pets. While I can agree with that comment, it parallels the present day welfare dilemma. We feed, clothe, educate, and provide medical care to many who like Fido are about as useful as Fido.
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