Posted on 05/20/2009 12:44:55 PM PDT by Red Steel
Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.”
— Adam Smith,
“The Wealth of Nations,” 1776
That quotation, from the great philosopher of capitalism, appeared at the start of an article that ran a few weeks ago in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article argued for taxing Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull and any other sugar-sweetened beverage, largely to combat obesity.
The authors were Kelly Brownell, a longtime obesity researcher at Yale, and Thomas Frieden, the New York City health commissioner. Since the article appeared, President Obama appointed Dr. Frieden to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So one of the nation’s top public health officials is now a fierce proponent of a soda tax. Meanwhile, other Obama advisers and some Senate staff members have been talking about such a tax — which wouldn’t apply to diet soda or real juice — as a way to help pay for expanded health insurance. Among 15 options for paying for health care reform, a new Senate Finance Committee analysis lists a “sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax.”
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo hate this idea, of course, and they’re fighting hard (if quietly) against it. Given the messy politics of tax increases, the industry seems likely to win this time. But the soda tax has already made the journey from unthinkable to plausible. It isn’t too hard to imagine that, some day soon, Congress or a state legislature will see the tax as the least bad way to raise desperately needed revenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And if you take sugar in your tea or coffee, what then?
And what stops you from adding a teaspoon of sugar to your diet Coke?
Ok..you go to Mcd’s and they must ask you whether you are drinking diet or regular before they give you the cup.
Or will they just equalize the price and say “screw you to the govt?”
Keep your filthy politician paws off my Mt. Dew!
Adam Smith may have called for a tax on sugar and rum, but in no way would Smith advocate using the proceeds from such a tax to fund a massive governmental takeover of the health system.
A wonder if they realize that most “healthy” fruit juices have more sugar than soda...
They’ll get it done...they hit tobacco hard and now they need another target. Not enough people fought back before because it was that nasty tobacco (no I don’t smoke)...now people are conditioned to see this as a health issue too. Sooner or later the gov’t will get to something those people care about and there will no one standing with them either.
What isn’t.
It’s amazing how these libtards never seem to get the fact that when you over-tax anything people reduce their consumption of that thing, resulting in less and less revenue (despite the higher tax rate)from reduced sales. Tobacco is a prime example.
Hope our young voters enjoy their 'change'.
I'm going as far as I can to get off the grid without going completely off.
I was going to do some long diatribe, but I’ll just sum it up with a single question.
What part of the Constitution gives the government the right to do this? Taxing something to discourage its use.
Nothing. The purpose of taxation is to raise revenue. Nothing else. If a tax is levied for any other reason, it is (imho) unconstitutional.
Ideally taxes are levied for actions and needs that cannot be done by the individual. They SHOULD be only sufficient for the taxing authority to do its job and no more. Taxing to affect human behavior should be STRICTLY AND FOREVER FORBIDDEN!!!
They are already taxed, through a sales tax.
Oh, diet soda is proven good? What about sugar in all other products? Shouldn’t that be taxed as well? Since I only weigh 112 lbs., can I get a tax exemption? If I don’t get some calories somewhere, I’ll disappear. Then they won’t get the taxes I already pay.
What the hell is wrong with these people?!!!
Reread the article. Your diet soda is safe.
Which is ironic since I never met a heavy person who didn’t drink diet soda.
That gets taxed twice because of the extra high caffeine content.
lets tax newspapers, college tuition and government (public) schools too. We can add condoms, rainbow flags and comfortable wymens shoes :)
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