I thought I’d had a stroke of genius recently when I woke up from a sound sleep believing I’d found the way to pay for the national health care plan; then I learned that New York Governor David Patterson beat me to it with his proposed tax on Soda. Oh well great minds think alike I guess. I read somewhere that taxing soda at 10-15% would raise an estimated 14.9 billion dollars the first year and 150 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Soda consumption would decline 8-10% leading to weight loss and reduced health risk.
So I want to know why just soda . Why not all fast food and all junk food. It’s only fair, there are taxes on Liquor and cigarettes. The smokers and drinkers pay extra for their indulgences. and smoking has decreased significantly with the increase in cigarette prices. Imagine a .45 tax on a Big Mac, .25 on the fries, .30 cents on those delicious soluble plastic milk shakes, .15 on a donut, .20 on a personal size bag of chips, .50 on the family size, 1.50 on a bucket of chicken and .80 on a large pizza. All earmarked for health care and education . Cha- ching, cha-ching it would all add up pretty fast. In fact at the end of the first year I bet we’d have a surplus, more than enough to fund health care for a few years, maybe even enough for another war!
One argument against such a tax is that taxing fast food would put and additional burden on the poor who are the largest consumers of fast food because it’s cheap. Well Duh, aren’t the poor also the largest segment of the population in need of free or subsidized health care? I think its only fair that the poor pay for It, and I’m not even a Republican.
Now if there is indeed a correlation between fast food, obesity, and ill health we will have solved more than one problem. Raising the price of junk food will make it less accessible which will have the benefit of making us eat less which will improve the quality of our health and cause less of a burden on the health care system right?.
The truth is by the time McDonalds, KFC and the SFA (Snack foods Association) are through lobbying it wouldn’t happen. Heaven forbid we should slow down consumption. As it is the the SFA has been lobbying against:
- limiting choice for Food Stamp Program participants
They believe food stamp recipients should be able to use their stamps to buy all the cheese puffs they want.
- Redefining Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value
They don’t feel they should have to inform you that those tasty cheese puffs are as good for your body as eating sawdust or toilet paper.
And they are in support of:
-The Commonsense Consumption Act
It’s too bad if you get fat or have any health challenges because of eating their cheese puffs Its your fault. You won’t be able to sue them .
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Without a doubt they will see a consumer tax on junk food as their tax in the long run. The poor and uniformed are essential to their bottom line.
I agree with this … sometimes you have to hurt to heal and if it means hurting a few pockets … then so be it.