Grothman Called KKK Member for Opposing Affirmative Action  |   Home  |   Tommy Reevaluates Campaign Strategy

Body Bags

Well, somebody’s gotta make ‘em. 

The real business is various styles of body bags—also called “cadaver pouches”—which cost from $10 to $30, the most expensive being a bright orange mesh bag for water recoveries. They come with six or eight handles, or for heavy duty, 10 handles. Some are for storage or transport, some have inner liners, and each is packed with a field identification kit. The company even sells a super-sized body bag called “The Big Girtha.”

The two women travel from conference to conference maintaining a customer base among public officials whose job responsibilities include handling the dead.

“Wisconsin is one of the best,” said Everson, who bought the business in 1999. “The people here are so dedicated to their mission. And they have a great sense of humor.”

It may seem like a captive market to some, but there are pitfalls, said Everson.

“Our product is petroleum based,” she sighed. “The oil prices are killing us.”

So if the roadies and Doyle get their oil tax, will the oil companies pass down their higher costs in the form of more expensive body bags?  Then, of course, since government is the primary consumer of body bags, it will result in higher spending and higher taxes.  Great!

Posted by Owen at 0739 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

1. Am I missing a smiley to indicate sarcasm? 

   Doyle’s tax may be poorly justified and not tested, but must everything be linked whenever possible, no matter how tenuously, to the cause du jour?  What makes you think the plastic for the plastic coated body bag is even manufactured in Wisconsin?  The company that makes them is in Florida.  Doyle’s tax is 2 1/2 percent on an oil company’s gross receipts. 

   In 2003, the Pentagon ordered about 76,000 body bags for the war, compared with 16,000 in 1991 for the first Iraq war.  Expenditure was about $5.6 million, or about 1/10000th of 500 billion, what I’d expect the entire war will cost. 

   This comes to a future Federal tax burden of about $4100 per Wisconsin household, although I don’t know if that estimate properly factors in those households whose income will be reduced because one or more of them returned home in a body bag, or whether it counts the money we give to the surviving members.

   So if Doyle gets his way, all those costs would be passed down to the body bag maker, and all the costs magically get transferred down to you, your taxes might go up a tiny fraction of a ten-thousandth of a cent.

   Doesn’t war increase spending and taxes?

   Posted by John Foust on June 07, 2007 at 2007 hrs
   
   
   

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.