If the Messiah's food Nazis don't exempt chicken, waffles, and Koolaid he'll lose Oprah and that will be his Waterloo.
Posted on 07/29/2009 5:16:17 AM PDT by shortstop
I told you so.
Years ago I said the next target was food.
In its tireless quest for power and money – done in the name of protecting you – the government has gobbled ever-larger chunks of the economy.
Tobacco, health care, communication, energy, banking, the automotive industry.
And now food.
A national soda-pop tax has been proposed, the Urban Institute wants to go after food producers and family budgets the way it went after tobacco companies and smokers, and food is about to be called a hazard to your health.
Ostensibly, because you’re fat.
Actually, because the government wants your money.
The one habit people can’t give up is eating. The one portion of the economy that truly controls the people is the food supply. In the past the government sought to protect it, now it wants to conquer it.
More correctly, now the government wants to conquer you.
And it will do so in the guise of protecting you.
As you may have noticed, Americans are fat. Some two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. It is a national shame. And it is a threat to our health.
But it is also a threat to our freedom.
Because when the activists point to the supposed $200 billion in annual health-care costs blamed on people being overweight, they are really just building a case to take away from you the ability to decide – or afford – what’s for dinner.
This is in the news because, in addition to the soda-pop tax, the Urban Institute has a new study out that calls for dramatic taxes on “unhealthy” foods.
Before we try to figure out what “unhealthy” is, let’s figure out what the Urban Institute is. Basically, it’s the government. It was founded by the government and is funded by the government – 62 percent of its budget comes from the feds – and since the days when Lyndon Johnson got it rolling, it has been a steady apologist for and advocate of socialist, big-government programs.
And it says food should be treated like tobacco. Producers should be taxed or sued into massive revenue-sharing agreements, and consumers should be heavily taxed.
The theory is that people who produce or eat food are bad, that they are the cause of the obesity epidemic and they must be forced to pay. The problem is that they are us. While a minority of people smoke, a majority of people eat.
And that’s a good thing.
So is the system of producer, processor and distributor that takes the tiniest fraction of our population and from its agricultural productivity feeds not only our country but also millions of foreigners. Astoundingly, we are being trained in this society to bite the hand that feeds us, to resent the farmer as a polluter and barbarian, somehow cruel to both the environment and livestock.
We have been taught phrases of contempt – like “factory farm” and “big agra” – and the prejudice against our food supply is palpable. We have been conned into hating something we don’t know the first thing about. Large processing companies – that feed countless people here and abroad – are not thanked for their efficiency and productivity, but are castigated and condemned.Then there are the folks who eat.
In the thinking of this report and its supporters, the free-will choices of Americans on something as elemental as what they eat or drink should be done away with. In order to get Americans to eat what and how much the all-powerful activists want them to eat, high taxes on “fattening” foods are being pushed.
The problem – beyond the tyranny – is that there is no such thing as a “fattening” food. It doesn’t really matter what you eat, it matters how much you eat and how much you exercise.
All food contains calories – little units of energy. In partnership with your level of physical activity, the number of calories your body takes in determines whether or not you gain weight. Twinkies are fine, depending on how many you eat. Fruit can be loaded with calories and an all-fruit diet – involving being idle and eating to excess – can make you just as fat as anything else.
If soda pop is bad for you, what about ice cream? Or chocolate? Or beef? Or cheese? Or eggs? Or pancakes and syrup? Or whole-wheat bread? Every one of those things has the innate capacity to contain at least as many calories as soda pop.
So where does the taxing start?
That question can’t be answered.
So the objective becomes: Making sure this tax never starts.
The groundwork now being laid for this government raid on the food industry and on our family grocery budgets must be pounded back into the hole it dripped out of. Activists talk about the cost of obesity and how this money could fund health-care reform and how people need to be protected from themselves. They feel empowered by the current regime in Washington.
But they must not be allowed to take control of the food supply. They are about to try a money and power grab, and in so doing will interfere with our ability to feed our children.
And that’s not a matter of convenience or philosophy, it is a matter of survival.
I told you so.
They’re coming after food.
And we’ve got to stop them in their tracks.
Using food as a weapon is the modus operandi of all African dictators.
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I know. It’s been a weapon by alot of people in power. Read Irish history in the 50 years before the potato famine. One of the reasons that it was so devastating was that the British and upper classes had a tight reign on food.
If the Messiah's food Nazis don't exempt chicken, waffles, and Koolaid he'll lose Oprah and that will be his Waterloo.
If the control-freaks really want to reduce obesity and control diabetes at the same time then they should put a 100% tax on ALL carbohydrates as it is the carbs that pack on the pounds and raise blood sugar levels.
Sugar, sure, but potatoes, rice, noodles, cookies, tortillas, bread, ice cream, chips, candy, fruits, basically everything except protein like beef and chicken and most, but not all, vegetables.
They already mandate a lot of things "for our own good." Consider your car, 5 mph bumpers, air bags, seat belts, don't talk on the cell phone, don't drive impaired, obey the speed limits etc. All these laws and regulations about what you must/must-not have, use, or do. Or consider you home, maybe it is quake-proof/resistant, or has a basement, extra wiring, smoke detectors, etc.
Not that I'm against safe vehicles and safe driving practices. Nor am I against building codes and home safety/security. But look at the thought process that got us to the point where the government is requiring these choices now. "Too many people are getting injured/killed by xyz... We'll pass laws to protect you." (from yourselves) ...and another little bit of personal liberty gets chipped away.
If we have universal health care, backed by the government (ie. our tax dollars), it is a natural outcome of this thinking that they'll want to control diet, exercise, lifestyle choices. "Too many people are making unhealthy choices, it is a burden on the health care system, costing you money. We'll help. We'll pass laws to protect you, and reduce costs."
This is where liberal thinking and ideals leads us. They alway sound great on the surface, appealing to emotions. Who could be against healthcare? Who could be against airbags? Who wouldn't want their children to be "safer" in a gun-free zone? But when you actually dig deeper, you find that generally, all these wonderful, sound-bite good, feel-good ideals lead to fundamental problems with liberties. The entire process is geared towards taking away freedom, liberty, choices, responsibility and accountability. The time is rapidly approaching when Americans are going to have to make a profound choice and a fundamental shift in what America is. We are very far beyond the principles this Nation was founded on. Very far from what the Founding Fathers fought to create. We are either going to descend into a mediocre socialist nanny-state, or reset back to a Nation built on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
control the food = control the masses.
That would make too much sense. Besides, those are Democrat voters, and they don’t want them to figure out that if the Gov’t has the power to give them something they also have the power to take it away.
Behind every fascist movement - will be a registered Democrat.
This reminds me when Hitlery was proffering video screens at the Dept of Motor Vehicles that offered breast feeding tips while you waited for your license. Really scary. Seig Heil!
A dem would never bring it up, and if a Repub did he/she would be called a racist.
They can not buy non-food items with the FS, but they can buy any food they want. WIC is the program which limits ‘purchases’ to milk, cheese, bread, formula, etc. I never go grocery shopping the first weekend of the month because I get pissed off at the human cholesterol clogging up the aisles. Not letting anyone through. Eight kids from 12 different men. Driving nice cars and here are my tax dollars feeding their 200 pound kids. We have the fattest ‘poor’ people on the face of the earth. Then my tax dollars pay for diabetes, kidney and high blood pressure treatments for these leeches. When I think of the amount money I spend on health insurance and food in a month it makes me want to demand these fat sluts get off their backs and get real jobs to support themselves and their multiple bastards. (Sorry about the rant.)
this would shape up as a battle titanic....the combined powers of Pepsi, Coke and McDonalds vs. the United States Government....would also LOVE to see Obama try and take the aforementioned Twinkies and Ho-Ho’s away from his core consituency who are on food stamps.
Liberals believe that the vast majority of Americans are simply too dumb to make the “right” decisions in their lives. They believe that we need to be controlled by the liberal elites who will make the “right” decisions for us. Taxation of “bad” things is purely social manipulation. Obama’s disparaging comments about the bitter people who cling to their guns and religion was a clear indication of the contempt he and all liberals has for those of us in flyover country.
This is to eliminate recycling at the curb.
That had it right before...Send all the garbage to a seperator plant. We had it here for years and it worked well until certain plastics caused a lot of fires.
Does anyone realize how much time we have to spend as individuals on "garbage"??
Exactly. Also, don't forget that Barry's local idol, Hugo Chavez, has heavily nationalized the domestic (VZ) agriculture industry and redistributed the agricultural lands - with the result that Venezuela, for the first time ever, is now being forced to buy its food from abroad. Naturally, distribution of this food is all dependent upon the largesse of Hugo.
I'm sure Barry would love to redistribute our agribusiness farms as well, and it would have the same result: the most successful agriculture in the world would suddenly be reduced to Third World status, and we'd all be waiting in line for Obama, probably in his Idi Amin uniform, to throw us an occasional handful of grain bought from China.
Kind of an ironic statement.
>>If the control-freaks really want to reduce obesity and control diabetes at the same time then they should put a 100% tax on ALL carbohydrates as it is the carbs that pack on the pounds and raise blood sugar levels.<<
What, so the tax can so to food stamps and free breakfasts and lunches for kids, which now cost more because it’s taxed?
How about if everyone feeds themselves and takes care of themselves? If I smoke, drink or am fat, it’s MY business. I pay for my own healthcare and everyone can p!ss off.
It is rather amazing that food is something that all humans need every day as compared to health care which is needed intermintently (sp?). Yet, the dems are claiming health care is a right to be provided by the gov’t and food is a luxury to be taxed.
Up is down, left is right, etc.
You know the idiots are setting the stage for a real, historical, 21st century tea party ala Boston 1773.
In 1773 it was the tea tax, the colonists had had enough and started dumping the tea into the harbor, no tea, no tax revenue.
Looks like to me if they go down this road, we can dump the soda pop in the harbor just as well. No soda, no tax, no revenue.
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