Seattle Mayor Adds Diet Drinks to His Soda Tax ‘To Tackle White Privilege’

HeatStreet ^ | 5/6/2017

[Altura Ct.]

The mayor of Seattle has altered the rules of his proposed soda tax — which would fund education for minorities–to include diet drinks because affluent white people tend to consume them more.

Mayor Ed Murray of the staunchly liberal Seattle city originally proposed the soda tax during his state of the city address in February. Under his initial plan, distributors of sugary drinks would have to pay 2 cents per ounce.

It would cover sodas such as Coke and Pepsi, energy drinks like Red Bull, fruit drinks, sweetened teas and bottled coffees such as those sold by Starbucks.

The Mayor claimed the tax would bring $16 million in revenue that would be spent on education programs aimed at reducing disparities between the city’s white students and students of color.

But the mayor has updated the plan after the staff of the mayor’s office told him that the tax would actually disproportionately fall on poor minorities, who have higher rates of soda consumption than white residents.

Murray changed the bill, lowering the levy to 1.75 cents per ounce and included diet drinks because they are by favored by affluent white city residents, despite the fact that most diet drinks have no calories and therefore don’t contribute to obesity.

According to Reason, taxing diet drinks has become “an issue of equality” to the mayor because they more likely to be consumed by “upper middle class white people” and therefore must be taxed as a way to fight “white privileged institutionalized racism.”

The white privilege tax may be a distraction for Murray, who’s facing accusations from four men that he paid for sex and sexually abused them in the 1980s when they were teen boys. A high profile lawsuit from one of the men filed last month claims that Murray “raped and molested him” over several years, beginning in 1986 when the man was a 15-year-old high-school dropout. Murray has denied the accusations

[Bigg Red]

moroness

:)

[Bigg Red]

moroness

:)

[Intolerant in NJ]

Seattle Mayor Adds Diet Drinks to His Soda Tax ‘To Tackle White Privilege’...what do diet drinks have to do with white privilege? - sometimes I think lefties have a big bowl full of scraps of paper with verbs written on them, and another with nouns, and one with adjectives, and they just reach in to pick at random any time they want to make a public statement - whatever gets strung together becomes their message of the day - doesn't matter if it makes sense, as long as it has the right buzz-words throughout......

[Williams]

He can engage in this racism and no federal judge will step in to stop him, like they do on everything else?

[Cowgirl of Justice]

This is the one who has several child molestation charges against him. Is he just trying to whip up some controversy to distract?

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/08/seattles-gay-mayor-accused-of-sexually-molesting-teens-in-the-1980s/

[Bigg Red]

Beautiful area.

[Dawgreg]

Well she is.......lol

[Ken H]

Those targeted minorities seem to be very well fed =>

21.4 percent of Latina females and 22.4 percent of Latino males are obese;

20.7 percent of Black females and 18.4 percent of Black males are obese;

15.1 percent of White females and 14.3 percent of White males are obese;

5.3 percent of Asian females and 11.8 percent of Asian males are obese.

[2011-2014 data]

http://stateofobesity.org/obesity-rates-trends-overview/

[FreedomStar3028]

Haven’t heard anything about Sessions lately.

Wonder if he got a stiff wrist yet.

[shanover]

This country is at the abyss of assholism. Something eventually will give and it will not be pretty. Pun intended.

[blackbetty59]

Isn’t it against the law to tax people by race? Can we put a tax on watermelon and fried chicken? Or an “extra tax” on Black and Milds, or how ‘bout “weaves”? That’s crazy!

[SamAdams76]

...which would fund education for minorities–to include diet drinks because affluent white people tend to consume them more.

Please do this! I would love for such a bill to be rammed through.

Why?

Because it would be a bridge too far. This would be too much to take even for people that are normally liberal. Then maybe we can start reversing the tide of this nonsense.

[Dawgreg]

I just pulled up the pic of this idiot and I swear him and Chelsea Clinton’s daddy (no, not Bill) are brutha’s by the same mother........;)

[Mr Rogers]

Given that there are more fat blacks than whites, shouldn’t diet soda have a tax CREDIT? Shouldn’t they be sold tax free, to encourage poor overweight blacks to drink them?

Or is Seattle’s mayor trying to kill off blacks? Maybe he’s a closet racist!

Perhaps Seattle ought to buy Diet Cokes, and distribute them free in school lunches...

[sauropod]

I can’t believe someone has managed to out-dork Bill DiBlasio, but here we are.

[jonrick46]

This is bigotry based upon stereotyped assumptions of people. I am not a privileged white and I will have to pay a tax on my diet cola because of a boneheaded stereotype. It is time to move out of Seattle. The Donkey Dunces keep voting in these boneheads every election.

[Chode]

100%

[jacknhoo]

Well it is communist Seattle after all.

[Ken H]

Given that there are more fat blacks than whites, shouldn’t diet soda have a tax CREDIT? Shouldn’t they be sold tax free, to encourage poor overweight blacks to drink them?

Of course, but you've got to think like a liberal => Tax credits for blacks who buy diet soda, and tax levies for whites:)