In my last post on President Obama’s ideas for international corporate tax reform, I referred to those ridiculous TV ads run by the American Pharmaceutical industry. You know the ones that start off by telling you that if you have a hangnail you must ask your doctor to prescribe the latest drug the company responsible for this annoying break in your TV viewing has invented. They always end the same way, “Taking this new wonder drug to make your hangnail go away can cause dizziness, nausea, blindness, loss of hearing and death. Oh, and your toes could fall off.” Talk about the cure being worse than the disease.

But yesterday I read in Bloomberg that the number one taxwriter in the U.S. House of Representatives – that would be one Charles Rangel from New York – says the House is considering imposing a tax on drug makers by taking away their deduction for advertising expenses.

Now there’s tax policy at its best! Maybe we can have a marginal tax apply based on how annoying specific commercials are.

According to the news report, Rangel says this will raise $37 billion. I’m not sure about that. And I’m not even talking about the First Amendment – the heck with that. Suppose the drug companies stop advertising? That won’t get the government the money it wants. But it gets me what I want.

This is why tax policy is such fun to watch. In this case, Congress is desperate for money for healthcare reform. So, Congress puts a bull’s-eye on the drug companies because, apparently, large multinationals have become the target de jour. And I don’t have to look at that guy in the Lipitor commercials anymore.

You can’t make this stuff up.