House Speaker John Boehner may be perpetually tan, but he doesn't have a tanning bed in his Washington D.C. apartment — which he rents from a lobbyist for the American Suntanning Association.
"There is not nor has there ever been a tanning bed in the residence!" Boehner's landlord, lobbyist John Milne insisted in an email Tuesday
to The Daily Caller.
Boehner, who has insisted for years that his healthy hue comes from spending a lot of time outdoors and not baking in a tanning bed, has longtime ties to the tanning industry lobbyist.
He started renting Milne's apartment in 2006,
reports The Washington Post, when he was first elected Speaker of the House, a move that raised some eyebrows because of Milne's lobbyist career.
When Boehner first started living at the apartment, Milne's clients included restaurant chains and health insurance companies who hired him to lobby on issues tied closely with Boehner's House position, including minimum-wage increases, tax breaks for small businesses, and tax-free savings accounts for insurance costs, the Post reported in 2006.
But since then, the American Suntanning Association contracted with lobbying firm mCapitol, where Milne works, for services this year.
Boehner's camp has denied for years that Milne lobbies him on any issue. However, the Indoor Tanning Association PAC donated $5,000 to Boehner in 2011,
according to records.
Several other lawmakers received contributions from the tanning PAC, including one other perpetually suntanned Republican, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, The Daily Caller reports.
The Indoor Tanning Association protested a 10 percent sales tax on tanning bed services that came as part of Obamacare, complaining the tax causes problems for tanning services or companies that offer tanning beds as part of gym memberships.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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