Booze, Butts, Pop Targeted for Tax Hikes in California

CNSNews.com ^ | 3/26/02 | Chris Rizo

[Prodigal Son]

It's about time some industries did the shrug of Atlas.

And this would be the perfect scenario for it. With Microsoft (if they did it) the media would spin it and many people would say it was simply the greed of Bill Gates.

But with Alcohol, Tobacco and Fizz Drinks, those industries could go public and say

"You know, California, you're absolutely right. You say our products are harming your populace and the last thing in the world we want is to do that. So in order to promote the health of your fine Republic, we hereby stop selling our evil products within your borders. We're certain the loss of revenue and jobs will more than be made up by the added years of life and lower body fat your citizens will enjoy. Hasta la vista..."

[mamelukesabre]

For the "never surrender" croud, I have a list

1) learn to brew your own beer and your own wine
2) you can make your own pop using dry ice for the CO2
3) buy tobacco from the indians and "roll your own"

You can buy a "bag of beer". All the ingredients come in a bag and all you do is add hot water. If you are really ambitious, you can buy the ingredients separate and brew it from scratch. Wine is simple to make compared to beer. I have made rootbeer in the past using dry ice to provide the carbonation. Now days, you can buy cigarette paper *with the filter attached*, so you can roll your own filter cigarettes. There is almost always a way around the "rules".

[Caipirabob]

Lordy, a "BUTT-TAX"? I'd better lose some weight, pronto...

[The Mayor]

just like NewYork, when all else fails go after these products and call it "the SIN tax"

[anymouse]

Pretty soon some one is going to start smuggling in Coke from Arizona. No not cocaine, bottles of Coca Cola. :)

[Clovis_Skeptic]

I just emailed Sen Ortiz, and gave her my opinion on this soda pop tax, and the senators on the revenue and tax comittee in the senate of Calif.

senator.scott@sen.ca.gov, pres of com.

Senator.Poochigian@sen.ca.gov , vp of com.

Senator.Ortiz@sen.ca.gov , author of the bill

[Clovis_Skeptic]

Sen Deborah Ortiz, looks like she has been chugging a few soda pops herself...

email the Senator

[Clovis_Skeptic]

[Clovis_Skeptic]

btt

[JustAmy]

As usual with California politicians, they try to find someone to tax that will not raise the ire of the entire state. Why, how can non-smokers oppose a tobacco tax? How can non drinkers oppose a booze tax? And how can coffee and tea drinkers oppose a pop tax?
Maybe fellow Californians will finally wake up and see the havoc our state lawmakers are creating.
Vote them out now!!!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ARGH!!!

There is no end to it!

I'll put this on the Calgov2002 list to remind everyone that we need some helpers for Simon.

calgov2002:

calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. 

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[Gophack]

Tobacco, liquor and soda pop are the target of a Democratic-controlled California Legislature that is seeking higher taxes on those products, not to fix a $17.5 billion state budget deficit, but to create a variety of new programs that would, among other things, discourage smoking and child obesity.

This is ridiculous! Kool-aid has more sugar and calories than soda! Why not exempt diet Coke and diet Pepsi?

You know, these so-called "sin taxes" make me sick. The taxes are raised to fund programs, but if the end result is achieved ... for example, everyone quits smoking ... there will be no money to fund the programs. Do you think the programs will disappear? NO!!!! They will just get money from everyone else to keep going.

This is pathetic. I really don't like Democrats.

[chainsaw]

have these three industries simply stop selling their products in California.

I said this about the tobacco co's. They should move off shore and refuse to sell their products in the US. Tobacco products will still get into the states but the government wouldn't get all that tax just for the asking. They would have to stop the smuggling first. Which our mighty government is unable, and incapable of doing.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping. Just more proof of what I posted in previous weeks and this week.

That is, "All the rats do is to increase taxes and then spend more money.

They are get ready to tax all but so called health foods. Teachers in Kali are sending home a letter to the parents of children who are overweight.

They will play this tune for a year or so and then start taxing everything we eat except a BK PETA Burger and some damn soybean nightmare from hell posing as food. At first this new tax will be on snack foods, soft drinks, sandwiches and things that are now have a sales tax even if they are bought in a grocery store. When, they have rammed those taxes home until the population is hemoragging, they will then start to tax beef, pork and maybe chicken and anything like a frozen piazza or ready to heat pizza in a grocery store.

Remember the only way the maggots voting cults in Kali can stay alive, have shelter, eat and do drugs is if they get our tax $'t to enable that life style. They will never be cut back by their slave masters, the Rat politicians!

[socal_parrot]

Another element of the fall out from Gov. Davis squandering our budget surplus. Will they tax diet sodas also?

Does anyone in California really call it pop?

[Clemenza]

I still beleive that we should tax adult establishments (strip clubs, adult book stores, etc). How about a porn tax?

[HamiltonJay]

Senate Bill 1520, also introduced by Ortiz, would levy a 10-cent tax on every 2-liter bottle of soda sold in the state to raise money for obesity prevention programs.

Hmmmm.. are diet soda's exempt? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Prodigal Son]

They should move off shore and refuse to sell their products in the US.

That would be a good long term fix for sure. I think with a single state boycott or even the threat of one, they could send a little wake up call to the dunderhead politicians and set an example for other states contemplating this sort of stupidity. It's the same here with the petrol taxes. I think with the petrol truck blockade of a short time back, the farmers sent a message to the gov't that any further petrol taxation would not be tolerated. That was the simplest form of civil disobediance and very effective. A "refusal to sell" wouldn't even be civil disobediance- it would just be refusal to cooperate.

I think back on the fall of the oppressive regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany. Just a bunch of people refusing to go to work- the gov'ts fell in a matter of days. We could do the same in the States with taxpayer strikes- across the board "sit at homes". The key is always in the organization. They would find ways to fustrate the organizers. But one day a week for 3 months would be enough to seriously hurt the gov't budget, more than enough, I think to ram the point home. Barring that, strikes by infrastructure workers in the name of lowering taxation would be an option and would not require as much unified cooperation. It wouldn't directly remove tax dollars from the gov't wallet but it would cause havoc and if the average American surveyed showed a lot of support for the idea behind the strike- it would also be effective.

[B Knotts]

Does anyone in California really call it pop?

Yes. In the northern reaches of California (Eureka, Redding), it is commonly called "pop."

[Judith Anne]

"to create a variety of new programs that would, among other things, discourage smoking and child obesity."

And those programs will work about as well as sex education did to discourage teen pregnancy, the way the war on poverty did to end poverty, and the way the war on drugs did to end drug use.

I fully expect a huge increase in fat, smoking, drug using, poor, pregnant children in just a couple of years.