Posted on 05/12/2009 2:35:48 AM PDT by PghBaldy
Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.
The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.
On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year. Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion. The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.
Senior staff members for some Democratic senators at the center of the effort to craft health-care legislation are weighing the idea behind closed doors, Senate aides said.
The Congressional Budget Office, which is providing lawmakers with cost estimates for each potential change in the health overhaul, included the option in a broad report on health-system financing in December. The office estimated that adding a tax of three cents per 12-ounce serving to these types of sweetened drinks would generate $24 billion over the next four years. So far, lawmakers have not indicated how big a tax they are considering.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Quit buying any sodas & kick their butts!
Why not just tax our couches since parking our fat tuckuses on them is harming our health?
I quit cigs in 1978 and just last week terminated my addiction to Diet Coke. So when the rest of the population gives them up and drives yet another set of businesses out of the country, they will finally get around to breathing. But they are working on that as well with the personal carbon emission tax. King George would be proud.
"Just put up a sign on the country, 'Closed-Owner Gone Nuts!'"
Washington is a place of lunatics, and Obama's coronation has finally given them permission to be their true selves.
Maybe when they start taxing sitting on your fat ass, watching TV and being sheeple, the voters will finally feel threatened enough to rise up and throw them all out.
Time to Push Back Until! We have to limit the amount of money we will allow Congress to spend. It is our money, not theirs.
When they talk about socialism in the abstract, the population gets behind them and say “Right On Brother!” And why not? Tax the anonymous “rich man” and give the money to ME!!!
But pretty soon the truth outs. There aren’t enough “rich men” to squeeze to get all they want.
So they come after “you and me”. Tax your gas, tax your electricity, tax your beer, cigs and sodas. Tax every nickel you earn, every nickel you save, every nickel you spend.
If the Stupid Party (that would be the R’s) has the brains and guts to remind the populus of these “populist issues” and start a steady drumbeat of reminders to the populus that OBAMA is the reason everything including the air you breathe is more expensive — it could go well for them.
Unfortunately, the (R)s are every bit as addicted to the peoples’ money as are the Rats. So I’m pessimistic it’ll ever happen.
I think we may have been separated at birth!
>> Maybe when they start taxing sitting on your fat ass, watching TV and being sheeple
heh... now there’s an idea. The BBC has mastered taxing television. Why not the ‘Rats?
I bet he’s chicken to increase the tax on alcohol.
I didn't know that.
The other day I borrowed a BBC doc from the public library, and it began with a glaring piece of accepted-wisdom malarkey. It reminded me of all the liberal twits I know who quote the Beeb like it's gospel.
[clueless on] Relax. This will only affect the 5% who make over $250,000/year. The rest of us won’t have out taxes raised a cent. Obama said so. [clueless off]
Out of control spending! The Sugar Tax affects minorities, woman and children most of all. Recalibrate those vending machines... pay for health care by using sugar, or ingest Acesulfame-K, Aspartame, Saccharin, Stevia, and Sucralose. Bring back Cyclamates.
OK so we now will nationalize Coke and Pepsi. Next target, Beef and pork...(You think I am KIDDING? The great Bacon Ban of 2010?)
It’s for the childrunz.
I think he did that at the same time he increased cigarette tax. It just didn't get as much coverage.
>> It reminded me of all the liberal twits I know who quote the Beeb like it’s gospel.
Yeah, we know a few of them too. Astonishing. The liberal venom of the BBC is impossible to disguise — it drips from essentially every faux news piece they do.
Check this out. It’s one of many (just google “british TV tax”):
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.html
I drink regular soft drinks, about one daily. The day they pass such a tax, is the day I have bought my last one and will still with water, lemonaide, tea. And, sigh, I guess I’ll have to sell my stock in Pepsi...
Well....it’s about time something other than cigarettes was taxed! Cigarettes have been taxed to death to cover everything from sports arenas to SCHIP.
I’ve long said something like sugar or toilet paper should be taxed to pay for these things....the costs shouldn’t be saddled on just ONE consumer product...spread the burden.
>> pay for health care by using sugar, or ingest Acesulfame-K, Aspartame, Saccharin, Stevia, and Sucralose.
Don’t worry, it won’t be either/or. They’ll tax artificial sweeteners too! Bad for your kidneys you know. :-)
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