I wrote a few minutes ago of the LA Times editorializing that new taxes be imposed on fattening foods to cut obesity and reduce health care costs. It isn’t just lefty anonymous editorial writers. The head of the Center for Disease Control wants a tax on soda passed to reduce obesity and stop health care costs. From the story:
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a three-cent tax would generate $24 billion over the next four years, and proponents of the tax argued before the committee that it would lower consumption of sugary drinks and improve Americans’ overall health. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Weight of the Nation” conference today, CDC chief Dr. Thomas Freiden said increasing the price of unhealthy foods “would be effective” at combating the nation’s obesity problem.
I only drink diet soda and iced tea: Does that mean I get a tax credit?
Health care is becoming the pretext for tax, tax, tax; control, control, control.
July 28th, 2009 | 1:35 pm
>>I only drink diet soda and iced tea: Does that mean I get a tax credit?
That depends. Is it a caffeinated diet soda?
July 29th, 2009 | 4:43 pm
What’s especially perverse about this is that is so far down the chain – we subsidize the overproduction of corn because nobody has the political guts to take on the farm bill, and then we make up for the effects by enacting regressive taxation on the food that all that surplus corn syrup is turned into. Throw in the additional loss of liberty – what a disgusting proposal all around. Incentivize bad eating for the poor, then tax them for it too. Yeesh.
August 19th, 2009 | 9:21 am
I’m picturing bootleggers making soda out back and selling it in discreet paper bags! This is going to get ridiculous.
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