Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) recently told a group of constituents that he backing a birther bill because he hoped that it would “get rid of everything” that President Barack Obama had done, and then added that the president’s “racist” health care law forced white people to pay more to use tanning beds.

During a town hall event in Gainesville on Saturday, Yoho explained that he had heard that Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) was planning to introduce legislation to investigate whether the president was a legitimate U.S. citizen.

ADVERTISEMENT

Yoho said that he agreed to co-sponsor the bill, but he wondered, “Is that where we should be spending our time?”

“But I’m going to check into that,” Yoho continued. “Because in order to have freedom, you have to have economic freedom. And our country is at $17 trillion in debt. We need to change the dynamics of that. We need a paradigm shift on our spending. So we can go over here [with the birther investigation] and it can be another distraction. But if it is truly illegal, he shouldn’t be there and we can get rid of everything he’s done, and I said I agree with that.”

And one of the things that Yoho is hoping to get rid is the president’s health care reform law because he said a tax on tanning beds was unfairly racist against people who did not have dark skin.

“I had a little fun with [John] Boehner and told him about the sun tanning tax. He goes, ‘I didn’t know it was in there,’ and I said, ‘Yes, it’s a ten percent tax,'” Yoho recalled. “He goes, ‘Well, that’s not that big of a deal.’ I said, ‘It’s a racist tax.’ He goes, ‘You know what, it is.’”

The Florida Republican continued: “I had an Indian doctor in our office the other day, very dark skin, with two non-dark skin people, and I asked this to him, I said, ‘Have you ever been to a tanning booth?’ and he goes, ‘No, no need.’ So therefore it’s a racist tax and I thought I might need to get to a sun tanning booth so I can come out and say I’ve been disenfranchised because I got taxed because of the color of my skin.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“As crazy as that sounds, that’s what the left does right. By God, if it works for them, it’ll work for us.”

Listen to this audio, recorded on Aug. 3, 2013.

ADVERTISEMENT

[Photo credit: YouTube]

(h/t: Right Wing Watch )