A so-called "liberal tax" leaves some juiceheads on the left in one Utah town with a foul taste.
George Burnett runs a smoothie and fresh juice shop in Vernal, a town of little more than 9,000. It's an area hot for drilling in the oil and gas industry. So the name of his shop? I Love Drilling Juice & Smoothie Bar.
The catch is he charges those who identify themselves as liberal a dollar more for his fresh-processed juices than he does those with a conservative bent. He uses the additional revenue — and any tips he receives — to donate to conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.
"I'm very open about it, very public about it, that I'm going to charge them a little bit more, and I have liberals come in and pay the extra dollar surcharge," Burnett told
local station KSL.
It's a model some would be happy to adopt for the entire nation, but others in the Vernal area aren't as excited. On Burnett's Facebook page, he's received more than his share of vitriol.
"This is pathetic," one person wrote. "One place in town I won't be going," another wrote. "Highly offensive and inappropriate," a third posted.
Burnett previously made headlines when he stood on a corner of East and Main streets in Vernal, spinning a sign that read, "Honk! If you love drilling!" Burnett had recently moved to town and opened a business on the corner that sells custom seat covers.
Now, he's adopted the name that made him a local sign-spinning fixture to bring in customers to his partisan juice bar.
"Really what I'm focused on is the fiscal differences between big government/small government and liberal ways, as far as entitlements and spending," Burnett said. "We have a fiscal problem in this country. We've got to deal with it or we don't have a country, so to kind of help make that point, just a little bit, I charge (liberals) just a little bit more."
Burnett considers himself a lifelong health-food and domestic-industry advocate.
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