Tax on unhealthy food: Fat chance?

Yahoo! ^ | 072809 | Allison Louie-Garcia

[Artemis Webb]

You will get my big azz greasy cheeseburger when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!

[GeronL]

That's been done before...

7/18/1939

Thanks to Homer_J_Simpson

[Lonely Bull]

but would also generate a good amount of revenue for the government.

Bingo.

[freedomconservationist]

So, burgers make people fat, right? Cheese makes people fat. Pasta makes people fat. Rice makes people fat. Does eating any of these foods really correlate to how overweight a person is? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The truth is that the biggest contributing factor to obesity is the eating habits of the individual. Tax that, anyone? I don’t see how. Why should individuals with eating habits that don’t make them fat pay these taxes?

[Artemis Webb]

Well if you’re not going to eat your pasta can I have it? :)

[GOP_Lady]

NANNY STATE PING!

[GOP_Lady]

Wasn't it Obama who told left-wing-whackos in Oregon during the campaign that Americans shouldn't be able to eat as much as they wanted?

[CanaGuy]

A tax on food doesn’t sound constitutional to me. Where does the constitution say they can levy taxes on food? State issue, if you ask me.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Can there be a way to help Americans fend off those junk-food induced cankles while simultaneously reducing the cost of Obama's trillion-dollar health care overhaul? Some researchers are saying yes, and they're calling this panacea of a proposal the "fat tax".

Sheer nonsense. Overweight people have no desire to be fat. They struggle throughout their lives to shed pounds - only a fool would believe that taxing them is finally going to provide them the incentive they've always needed. Call this what it is - a cash grab by the government.

[GeronL]

eat as much as we want or drive our SUV’s as much as we wanted and turn down the thermostat as low as we want to and still expect other countries to say OK

[GOP_Lady]

If that wasn’t a RED FLAG.

See what I posted earlier today:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2303155/posts

[VeniVidiVici]

Of course food stamp recipents would be exempted from any such tax as it would be construed as an attack on ethnic groups.

[airborne]

And besides, they vote Democrat.

[airborne]

Where does the constitution say they can levy taxes on food?

Our government hasn't been constrained by the Constitution for a long time now.

[airborne]

Wow! This Administration must be taking it’s directions from a Nazi historian. They’re so similar it’s chilling!

[cherry]

this is a tax that will hit the poorest the worse...just like the cigarette tax....

fresh produce and whole grain foods are more expensive than the canned veggies or cheap white bread....

just look at the fat free selections in most items....butter spread, peanut butter,etc..(YUCK)....

poor and the unemployed will go for the biggest bang for the buck....

[freedomconservationist]

I agree completely. Look at who has the biggest problem with obesity: it’s the poor. People on welfare, especially. They have to buy the cheap, unhealthy food to support themselves on the meager amount they get.

[thefrankbaum]

They have to buy the cheap, unhealthy food to support themselves on the meager amount they get.

That is completely false. They buy crap food, I agree, but not because healthy food is more expensive - fresh produce, on a per calorie basis, is much cheaper than processed meals. They buy junk because it is easier to consume without any effort - someone else does the work, you just eat. Another FReeper posted a personal story, where he witnessed poor person after poor person enter Burger King to get food, while the 7/11 DIRECTLY NEXT DOOR had a big sign advertising bananas for sale at 59cents/lb. I guarantee I spend less money per month on food than the majority of people on foodstamps do, and I eat much better.

[Kitanis]

“Where does the constitution say they can levy taxes on food?

Our government hasn’t been constrained by the Constitution for a long time now.”

About Damned time we the people make our government be constrained by the Constitution...

[Kitanis]

Yep, he did