I'd really love for someone other than Mark Bittman or Governor (for today) Patterson to explain to me how taxing me an extra couple of bucks a day is fair or beneficial to me. Luckily, I now live in Westchester. When this takes effect, I will be driving up to Greenwhich to buy ALL of my groceries. They have an A&P and a Stop & Shop right across US1 from each other. I generally don't go to bars anymore, but I will also most likely be ordering a beer, instead of a coke.
Well, there is no such thing as second hand soda, so I’m not sure how far the analogy will go.
It directly upsets the livers enzyme balance.
So that's a big issue right there.
I guess this explains why the commie ‘RATS needed to throw out the ten commandments. The commie piggies have decided that it’s their call which are sins and which are not sins. Typical commie garbage.
Tobacco had money. The politicians couldn’t stand to see a pile of money out there and not go grab it. Now they’ve killed tobacco, they need to find another pile of money to go after. This decade, it’s the turn of soft-drink manufacturers with fast food close behind.
When they’ve been bled dry, what’s next?
We’ll tax the air,because we’re the taxman.
The New Prohibition will outlaw alcohol, tobacco products,trans-fats and sugar for out own good.
The do-gooder is relentless ... and always needs a target.
’ Joint Committee on Taxation calculated that a 3-cent tax on each 12-ounce sugared soda would raise $51.6 billion over a decade’
NO
When you tax a luxury item(which is what soda is) consumption of that product will drop thereby offsetting the projected amount believed to be raised.
Another item will appear ,like sweeten tea, and many will substitute.
Fast forward thirty years. Imagine that you have switched to diet pepsi to avoid the calories in those 5-6 cans of regular Pepsi. Now, following the logic (if you can call it that) of this latest Nanny State power grab, you should pay less for the diet soda, right? Isn’t the goal to charge more only for soda with that evil sugar?
Anyone who has ever bought soda knows that the price of diet soda is always the same as the price of regular soda, no matter what the price of sugar is doing. So if the price of a six pack of Pepsi goes up to ten bucks so will the price of a six pack of diet Pepsi.
These people need to get a life and leave us alone.
It’s just another way for the government to squeeze more tax dollars out of us. Elitist liberals drink Perrier. I wish busybodies like this liberal Bittman would shut up.
This is going to happen (the Fat Tax), as soon as a bunch of Lawyers file a Class Action and gain Billions in compensation for themselves, and every fatass that joins the suit will get a coupon for Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi. Same as Big Tobacco, Big Soda will get their deep pockets attacked...
Seriesly(heh), its time to boil the tar and pluck the feathers. I'm not kidding anymore!
oublic health advocates should all have their heads shaved.
Soda Pop?
Another Beverage Tax?
Didn’t we fight a war and secede from Britain over another beverage tax?
Gezzz...That made honk a burp just thinking about that.
Taxes get raised for one reason only - to take more of your money. Anybody who says different like these yahoos, are liars.
Soda is crap, sweetened or unsweetened , and I say that as someone who once owned a small vending business in Scottsdale Az. 25 years ago.
I didn’t drink soda of any kind then, while I was in the business, but it was very lucrative for me, for an expenditure of no more than 10 hrs. weekly to buy the product and service the 21 machines.
I could agree with EVERYTHING in any initiative to tell the truth about soda, EXCEPT putting an additional tax on it.
THAT feature is the ONE AND ONLY feature of course, Michelle Obama, our new Obesity Czar, cannot do without.
So I say SCREW HER~
sorry for the mental image-——
I’ve always liked Mark Bittman, but if he goes along with the tax part of this, I like him less.
Soda has even more deleterious effects than helping bring on obesity to those already prone to it: the acids are not good for digestion, and wear away the enamel on teeth, just as white wine does.
I stopped drinking diet soda as of today, interestingly enough.
Four or five hours ago was involved in a discussion on this very subject: someone was talking about the provable handy household uses of Coca Cola for cleaning out toilet bowls, loosening rusty screws, (like WD-40) and a host of other things. THat did it for me. Cold Turkey, just like smoking
five years ago.
I don’t need that kind of stuff in my stomach ,or on my teeth.
And as for Michelle Obama, I would and will much sooner welcome the British food guy Jamie Oliver and try to get us to be more healthful eaters, which is a legitimate desire.
Jamie is in the marketplace of ideas, and is NOT being paid by “government money” (OUR MONEY)
I don’t advocate a tax on soda by any means, but I don’t think it’s healthy to ingest a lot of this stuff. I used to drink 2-3 Diet Cokes a day but stopped about 10 years ago. Now I don’t drink any non-naturally carbonated drinks and I don’t add sugar or salt to any of my food, and haven’t for a long time. Still, I think people should be free to eat and drink whatever they want without meddling by the government, and certainly without any taxes.