Democrats Newest Circus Act: An “Amusement Tax”

Only with Democrats can “amusement” actually mean punishment.

Mayor Brandon Johnson—whose fiscal sense ranks somewhere between a drunken gambler and a toddler with a credit card—has decided that salvation lies in taxing your screen time. He’s calling it an “amusement tax” on social media giants like Meta and TikTok, but don’t be fooled. This isn’t about helping anyone’s mental health. It’s about plugging a $1.15 billion hole in a city that bleeds red ink faster than a crime scene bleeds red anything else.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Johnson’s new brainchild would slap a 50-cent fee per user after the first 100,000 on social platforms. If this nonsense were to come into effect, the city expects to collect $31 million in revenue. An adorable when you understand that their deficit has nine zeroes in it. If Chicago’s finances were a sinking ship, this tax would be like throwing a pool noodle at the Titanic.

And like every Democrat tax scheme, it’s wrapped in moral virtue. Johnson’s pitch? He’s protecting kids from the “addictive” harms of social media. Apparently, he’s suddenly concerned about depression, anxiety, and mental illness. That’s rich coming from a city where citizens suffer daily trauma dodging carjackers, potholes, and property taxes. If social media causes anxiety, what do you call living in Chicago? How about this: a psychological experiment in hopelessness.

The Virtue Hustle

Democrats have a special talent for disguising greed as compassion. When they’re not redistributing your wealth, they’re redistributing your guilt. Johnson’s “for the greater good” spiel claims he’s taxing social media to help people hooked on dopamine hits from scrolling Instagram. I rather enjoy breathing fresh air, so why not tax that too. Oh wait…they already do.

He compared social media to cigarettes, declaring it an “addictive vice.” Which begs the question: should we also tax Leftism? It’s equally addictive, far more delusional, and provably destructive. At least nicotine in the right amounts actually serves a purpose. Because no amount of Leftism is healthy.

The mayor’s office promises that the new revenue will go into a “protecting care fund.” In other words, this tax is a slush fund for political pet projects.

Supposedly, the money will expand “care teams” that replace police officers during mental health calls. Because when someone’s having a psychotic break and threatening the lives of Chicagoans, who better to send than an unarmed social worker with a clipboard?

Chicago already defunded parts of its police budget to fund these kumbaya squads. But when reality intrudes—say, when a “care team” faces someone wielding a machete—Johnson’s empathy bubble bursts like a cheap party balloon. Instead of refunding the police, he doubles down on the fantasy by taxing Instagram likes.

A Tax on Nothing

The funniest part of this fiasco is logistical. The city has no idea how to enforce it. Johnson’s senior adviser, Jason Lee, claims they can estimate user counts from public data. So, the government will “guess” what these companies owe. Imagine the IRS running a carnival booth: “Step right up! Spin the wheel of fortune to see your tax bill!”

Lee said three departments—Law, Finance, and Business Affairs—are “working on potential models for collection.” If there is ever a statement that should scare you, it when govern is “working on [anything]”.

This “tax for nothing” approach is classic Democratic economics. They tax your productivity, your energy, your gas, your entertainment—and now, your attention span. Have Democrats finally reached the end of how much they can tax you? No freaking way.

A History of Absurdity

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because Chicago’s been here before. Remember the “Sneaker Tax” of 2016? It was part of a larger package of taxes and fees passed by the Chicago City Council in 2016 under Mayor Rahm Emanuel to address a massive budget shortfall.

The tax was an expansion of the city’s amusement tax to include “electronically delivered amusements” and recreational fees. It included a 5% tax on gym memberships and fitness classes as well as fees for using indoor athletic facilities.

This 5% tax was immediately nicknamed the “sneaker tax” or “yoga tax” by critics and the media. The logic was that if you buy sneakers to go to the gym, you were effectively being taxed for your workout. Effectively taxing the very kids who’d use those centers was akin to charging firefighters for water. Thus, sneaker tax was a catchy, memorable label that stuck.

The revenue was intended for community programs, and the massive $588 million property tax increase that was passed at the same time primarily to shore up police and fire pension funds. To make the overall package more palatable to the public, the city bundled it with new revenue (like the “sneaker tax”) that was earmarked for specific, popular initiatives.

The revenue from these new taxes, including the gym tax, was intended to fund:

• After-school programs for at-risk youth.

• Summer job programs for young adults.

• Expanding city mental health services.

• General city services to avoid further cuts.

So, while not for a single “community center,” the money was framed as an investment in the community, particularly for children and social services.

How do you think that worked out?

Interestingly, Johnson isn’t even the pioneer of this latest Leftist madness.

Similar “social media taxes” were floated in Minnesota and Washington state. None passed. Why? Because even liberal lawmakers recognized they were unconstitutional boondoggles. But in Chicago—where common sense goes to die—they’re calling it innovation.

Meanwhile, legal experts are already laughing harder than the taxpayers.

Amy Bos of NetChoice—a trade group representing companies like Meta, Reddit, and X—called Johnson’s proposal “unlawful.” She cited a 1983 Supreme Court decision that struck down a Minnesota tax on newspapers for paper and ink purchases. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor ruled that singling out the press violated the First Amendment.

Northwestern law professor Martin Redish went further, calling the plan “a complete loser.” His translation: not just unconstitutional, but embarrassingly stupid. “You can’t pick out the media to impose a burden you don’t impose on others,” he said. “That’s constitutional suicide.”

Redish invoked the infamous 1936 Supreme Court case where Louisiana’s populist tyrant, Huey Long, tried to tax newspapers that criticized him. The Court smacked it down. So yes, Chicago’s mayor is essentially channeling Huey Long—without the charisma, vision, or literacy.

Democrat Math: More Taxes, Less Logic

This “amusement tax” epitomizes Democratic fiscal strategy:

1. Create a crisis.

2. Blame corporations.

3. Invent a new tax “for the children.”

4. Funnel the cash into government programs that solve nothing.

Chicago doesn’t need another tax; it needs adult supervision. The city hemorrhages billions subsidizing illegal aliens, failed social programs, and union pensions while productive citizens flee to red states faster than you can say “U-Haul.” The solution to a fiscal hangover isn’t another shot of socialism—it’s sobriety.

But Brandon Johnson can’t grasp that, and neither could his predecessors Lori Lightfoot and others like Rahm Emanuel. Johnson is yet another Leftist master of delusion—proof that Chicago politics is less an electoral process and more a rotating freak show.

Comedy in the Collapse

The irony is poetic: Johnson wants to tax “amusement.” But Chicagoans stopped being amused years ago. When your city leads the nation in carjackings, shootings, and corruption, laughter is a survival instinct. Maybe that’s the real “amusement tax”—a levy on the privilege of still finding humor in this Democrat-created tragedy.

And that’s what makes this story pure Chicago: the perfect blend of greed, incompetence, and moral preening. It’s not governance; it’s performance art with a cover charge. Johnson’s tax won’t fix the budget, heal the mentally ill, or save the children. But it will make for one hell of a punchline:

“Chicago taxes social media to fight mental illness.”

If that isn’t mental illness, what is?