A proposal is now before the Mississippi legislature to tax sodas in order to combat obesity in the fattest state in the nation, and as a way to provide additional funding for Medicaid. As I sit here sipping my caramel latte, I wonder exactly how this will work. Will regular Coke be taxed, but Diet Coke and Coke Zero be sparred? And what about my latte? It is not only loaded with sugar, but fat loaded milk as well. Will restaurants charge one price for sweet tea and another for unsweet tea (and then maybe add the tax if you request sugar to self sweeten, (but not add the tax for sweet & low or splenda)). And given that food stamp purchases are exempt from sales tax, and presumably would be from this sugar tax as well, aren't we eliminating an entire class of consumer from any obesity deterrent? From my limited observations in the supermarket checkout, those consumers are not typically the most trim in the store. I am all for discouraging obesity, but this proposal isn't designed to do that, as the above examples illustrate. To think that such a sugar tax would be workable is obsurd. It is designed to raise revenue and nothing else.
If we really want to discourage obesity and encourage better health, why not just tax obese people (of which I am one) extra, or offer a tax credit to thin people. If there is one thing that the earned income tax credit has proven, it is that tax policy motivates the behavior of a lot of people in Mississippi. People will limit their income to $13,000 event though capable of earning more, and add children to their family, in order to maximize their "refund" of taxes they never paid to begin with. No doubt a tax on excess weight would similarly motivate many to fall and stay below the weight threshold, myself included. It is no different than when many of my friends put $100 each into a pot, with the one who loses the greatest percentage of weight to take the purse. Money motivates behavior, but a policy that taxes responsible thin people, but exempts fat poor people, and selects only a tiny segment of the vast junk food market, is nonsensical.
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