Statesman Journal (Oregon) Opinion
September 14, 2009
By Tom Keenan – president of the Portland Bottling Co.
Throughout the continuing Congressional debate about healthcare reform, proposals to cover the cost by adding a federal tax to everyday goods have repeatedly reared their ugly heads.
This spring, sodas and juice drinks were summarily and incongruously lumped into this taxable category.
Americans overwhelmingly agree that we must have an overhaul of the healthcare system. However, with unemployment rates increasingly reaching Depression-era levels and staggering foreclosure rates, we need it without any new taxes on the middle class — such as a tax on soda and juice drinks — and President Obama has said so himself repeatedly.
For this reason, Oregon’s Congressional delegation should vote “no” on any regressive soda and soft drink taxes that might be sneaked into healthcare reform.
The poorest 20 percent of Americans spend a full 30 percent of their after-tax income on food. Accordingly, an additional tax on food and beverages would most heavily impact low and middle income workers struggling in the current economy.
A tax of a penny an ounce will add 12 to 20 cents on the average soda. Of course people will drink less if it costs more, especially when the tax increases the price of the average soda by 25%.
Such a tax would place a tremendous financial burden not just on area families, but also on local bottlers, retailers and small business owners, who would inevitably see sales decrease.
The beverage industry provides more than well-paying 220,000 jobs and directly impacts three-quarters of a million retail employees.
In Oregon alone, there are more than 11,700 beverage industry jobs: 35,653 rely on the soft drink industry as a vital part of our local economy.
We do not need Oregon’s unemployment to go higher! It makes no sense to put even more jobs at risk during this recession.
And if we’re trying to improve health care coverage in America, it makes even less sense to risk jobs that come with good health benefits.
Obesity is caused as much by lack of exercise as it is to what we eat and drink.
According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 70% of Americans oppose a federal tax on soda. Everyday citizens recognize that a new tax on sodas and juice drinks would be regressive. They know that an increased tax only increases the costs of our daily commodities and thereby increases the price we pay at the grocery store.
A tax on sodas and juice drinks will not even begin to solve the complex problem that is healthcare reform. In fact, it will only mean more government spending and increased taxes for the American people.
With economic downturns, there could not be a worse time to ask Americans to pay more for the beverages they consume. Middle-income families are not getting wage increases to cover higher taxes. They are struggling to pay just their existing bills.
Congress should move forward with the healthcare debate in a way that helps all Americans.
There is a smarter way to improve our health care system. But it’s not through instituting unfair taxes at a time when we can least afford it.
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To read the original article, go to: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090914/OPINION/909140309/1049.
