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April 9, 2009
Will Soda Tax Go National?
Despite the failure of New York's soda tax, efforts are underway to use socialized healthcare to justify a punitive tax on soda:
Taxes have been shown to reduce smoking and are just as likely to help adults and children choose healthier drinks, which are now usually more expensive than sodas and other sweetened beverages, the experts wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A tax of one penny per fluid ounce (30 ml) on drinks such as soda, sports drinks and sugar-sweetened fruit juice and iced tea could "reduce consumption of sugared beverages by more than 10 percent," Kelly Brownell of Yale University in Connecticut and New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden wrote. …
"The contribution of unhealthful diets to healthcare costs is already high and is increasing — an estimated $79 billion is spent annually for overweight and obesity alone — and approximately half of these costs are paid by Medicare and Medicaid, at taxpayers' expense," they wrote.
Again we see that government involvement in healthcare will lead inexorably to totalitarianism, as one product after another is targeted for allegedly being bad for us. After cigarettes are gone and soda follows, bureaucrats will turn to meat, alcohol, candy, pasta, et cetera, and not stop until we're reduced to subsisting on bean curd and gruel. Then they'll begin to mandate government supervised exercise regimens.
Government funding of research also has its hazards. Shouldn't the New England Journal of Medicine be focusing on meaningful scientific developments, rather than serving as a soapbox for petty tyrants like New York's Health Commissioner? What the global warming farce did to climatology, ever-metastasizing government will do to science in general, until Trofim Lysenko is brought back from the grave to teach official biology.
On a tip from CTH.
Update:
Via Cigar Dave, here's a photo of Kelly Brownell of Yale University, one of the guys who wants the government to tax you until you're thin:
He looks a little on the porky side, for a guy who wants to dictate diet to the rest of us.
Posted by Van Helsing at April 9, 2009 10:43 AM
Comments
Maybe it will start to dawn on all the people who back smoking bans and "sin taxes" where all this stuff leads.
Taxes are supposed to generate income for legitimate government functions only, and should be applied as lightly and equitably as possible.
Taxes are not to be used to redistribute wealth. Taxes are not to be used to enforce "social justice". Taxes are not to be used to punish or effectively prohibit activities that the majority might not particularly like.
If something is a true menace it can be banned, like heroin is. If it's not a menace to be banned, like Coca-Cola, it should be taxed the same of other goods.
Posted by: forest at April 9, 2009 11:04 AM
With the failure of the soft-drink tax, NYCity's "health advisor" now proposes a tax on all sugar. Oh yes, and salt - he wants to achieve a maximum consumption that Federal studies show is the minimum
Posted by: teqjack at April 9, 2009 11:06 AM
Another stupid tax from a bunch of tax and spend liberal demacrats what else can one ever expect from these crinimals in very low places
Posted by: SPURWING PLOVER at April 9, 2009 11:19 AM
I'm fat... and I hate soda. Almost never drink it (maybe 1-2 x a year). Go figure!
Posted by: Anonymous at April 9, 2009 3:58 PM
LIBERALS:
Remember when you said Bush/Cheney was trying to impose a theocracy to control your lives?
LOOK IN A MIRROR AT THE REAL CONTROL FREAKS!
Posted by: KHarn at April 9, 2009 6:36 PM
Someone should shove a whole grapefuit down that KELLY BROMWELL jerks throat AND HOPE HE GAGS
Posted by: Flu-Bird at April 9, 2009 8:08 PM
Wonder what the doctors who wrote the article would think of a couple of economists performing surgeries or prescribing drugs? Yeah, which is why doctors shouldn't assume they understand economics..
Posted by: Mandible Claw at April 10, 2009 3:25 AM
This Michael Moore look-alike is just another liberal nanny-state socialist. Do as I say, not as I do ala Obama, Gore, Kennedy, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, etc,etc, etc.
Posted by: BrucePierce at April 10, 2009 5:49 AM
Taking diet advise from Brownell would be like taking etiquette lessons from Paris Hilton.
Having said that, the liberals are very authoritarian and are very dangerous. Everything is set in their sights either for banning or extreme taxation. They seek not to help the "little guy" but control him.
Posted by: Atomic Lib Smasher at April 10, 2009 7:42 AM
Get the CENTER of CONSUMER FREEDOM and get the low down on this low-life reptile KELLY BROMNWELL
Posted by: Flu-Bird at April 10, 2009 8:24 PM
