Although it appears that a national tax on soda pop might be too much for the American people to swallow, the prospect that consumers will soon have to pay even more for their favorite sweet and bubbly beverages remains quite real.
Read More »The Huffington Post
By Dr. Pamela Peeke, MD and author
January 16, 2010
All year long, newscasts have been filled with stories on healthcare reform and obesity in America. There’s no doubt that our current medical care delivery system is in need of some repair and refinement. And, most agree that we have an obesity epidemic on our [...]
By The Oregonian Editorial Board
February 15, 2010
One notion that has bubbled up in recent years as a possible strategy to counteract childhood obesity is the idea of taxing soda pop.
It’s a dreadful idea, which deserves the fate that has, thus far, befallen it — to fizzle out.
Last week, when first lady Michelle Obama unveiled her [...]
Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 15, 2010
Thankfully, idea dies in Congress Although President Barack Obama “expressed interest” last summer in a punitive tax on sugared soft drinks, the Chicago Tribune reports, a key congressional committee, “after initially seeming receptive, ended up refusing to consider it.”
Why? A handful of black and Hispanic groups protested, arguing it would hit [...]
The Daily Caller
By J. Justin Wilson
January 21, 2010
In an attempt to shore up New York’s $7.4 billion deficit, Gov. David Paterson is pitching a sour proposal: a “sin tax” on soft drinks that he believes could help reduce waistlines while filling politicians’ pockets.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because Paterson called for an 18 percent tax [...]
U.S. News & World Report – Commentary – Thomas Jefferson Street Blog
By Mary Kate Cary
October 28, 2009
Obesity is a public health crisis in the United States. There’s no debating that it is caused by Americans’ sedentary lifestyles and poor food choices.
And, before we go any further, I should disclose that I am an active supporter [...]
October 26, 2009
by David Brunori
David Brunori argues against the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages, stating that such a tax would be not only unfair but would impose a hidden levy that runs counter to the principle of tax system transparency.
David Brunori is the executive vice president of editorial operations for Tax Analysts. The opinions expressed in [...]
Washington Post Opinion
September 27, 2009
By Katherine Mangu-Ward
Like bears to honey or zombies to brains, politicians find something irresistible about soda taxes. President Obama recently told Men’s Health magazine that he thinks a “sin tax” on soda is “an idea that we should be exploring.” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom moved to impose a fee on [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16, 2009
CONTACT: Press Office at 202-463-6770
New Ads Caution Washington Not to Tax Hard-Working Families
Strength of Coalition Demonstrates Concern about Slippery Slope on Grocery Taxes
WASHINGTON – Americans Against Food Taxes (AAFT) is releasing two new ads this week that caution Washington policy-makers against raising grocery costs on middle-class families by taxing their [...]
NACS Daily News
September 16, 2009
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – These days, it seems like every time you turn around, another state or federal official is espousing the view that a tax on soft drinks or French fries will solve the country’s obesity and budget problems. Calorie-laden foods and beverages are the new generation of “sin taxes,” QSR [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 14, 2009
CONTACT: Press Office at 202-463-6770
New Ads Caution Washington Not to Tax Hard-Working Families
Strength of Coalition Demonstrates Concern about Slippery Slope on Grocery Taxes
WASHINGTON – Americans Against Food Taxes (AAFT) is releasing two new ads this week that caution Washington policy-makers against raising grocery costs on middle-class families by taxing their [...]
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 [...]
NY Daily News
September 14th 2009
By J. Justin Wilson
The prospect of a trillion-dollar health care overhaul has Congress looking under couch cushions to find enough new revenue to pay the bill.
Despite opposition from two-thirds of Americans, President Obama has latched onto exploring one proposal to raise billions of dollars through “lifestyle taxes” on soft drinks. Not [...]
Chicago Tribune
September 13, 2009
By Anne Moore
Fat consumes 10 percent of our health-care dollars. That’s $147 billion we spend, as a nation, treating diseases caused or exacerbated by too much fat on our frames.
We spend even more — 50 percent — on aging. But aging is natural. We fight it, we deny it, we postpone it. [...]
Huffington Post
September 11, 2009
By: John Ridley
A thought as the health care debate reignites. I promise you I’m not trying to malign fat people, or the weight challenged or Hefty Americans. Trying not to malign them, mostly because there are so many of them. Obese people in America now outnumber the merely fat. The National Center [...]
NY Daily News
September 9, 2009
By David Saltonstall
Gov. Paterson’s proposal to tax soda in New York fizzled, but President Obama says it’s an idea whose time may come
The President, in an interview with Men’s Health magazine released yesterday, said he thought taxing soda and other sugary drinks is worth putting on the table as Congress debates [...]
Economic Impact of a Proposed Beverage Tax
A proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would raise beverage prices to consumers and produce significant impacts on both the beverage industry and related industries. These adverse economic impacts would result in lower tax revenues to government, significantly offsetting the projected revenue to be gained by imposing the tax. The [...]
Enid News Editorial
July 29, 2009
Are you ready to start paying a slew of new “fat” taxes for certain foods or drinks you consume that some think tank somewhere considers a poor health choice?
Get ready, because that’s exactly what many lawmakers and advocates of health care reform have in mind to help pay for the massive [...]
The News Journal – Bethany Beach Wave Editorial
August 12, 2009
When Washington is in a panic, all kinds of strange things can happen. For example, it’s possible Congress will put an anti-fat tax in the health reform bill.
For the moment, no plan includes such a tax. However, it still is on the table.
The most likely form [...]
For Immediate Release
July 23, 2009
Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos
(202) 833-6130 ext. 16
Lulac Fully Supports Hardworking Americans
Opposes all efforts federally and on the state level to impose taxes on food and/or non-alcoholic beverages
Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens passed the resolution opposing taxes on food and non-alcoholic beverages last Saturday at the [...]
The Hill
July 11, 2009
By Jordy Yager
Republicans and tax groups are pushing back hard against the Democratic plan to fund a trillion-dollar healthcare overhaul bill by taxing wealthy Americans.
The opposition comes in response to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) announcement on Friday that the House next week will propose raising taxes on couples [...]
NEW COALITION SAYS NO TO REGRESSIVE AND DISCRIMINATORY BEVERAGE AND FOOD TAXES
Health care reform is the right thing to do, but singling out consumer products for taxation is wrong approach to complex problem – especially in this economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans Against Food Taxes, a new coalition of concerned individuals, working families, and small and [...]
Capitol Briefing Blog – Washington Post
July 10, 2009
By Shailagh Murray
Here’s one idea Congress is considering to pay for health-care reform: a tax on sugary beverages, like soda.
And why not? A federal excise tax in the range of 3 cents per 12 ounces on beverages sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners might discourage [...]
Politico
July 10, 2009
By Chris Frates
Democrats on the influential House Ways and Means Committee seemed to be moving toward a funding plan for health care reform that would cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by roughly $500 billion to $600 billion and levy a surtax on the wealthy — even as the bill’s introduction was put off [...]
Independent Mail Editorial
Sunday, July 5, 2009
We received an e-mail last week that we initially took with a grain of salt, but apparently its author isn’t kidding around. He essentially said that any plan to increase taxes on sugar-heavy soft drinks would be unfair to people (like him) who consume in moderation. Instead, he proposed, [...]
Read More »San Jose Mercury News
June 24, 2009
By William F. Shughart II
History, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt once remarked, does in fact repeat itself.
Not long after taking office as the nation’s first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton persuaded Congress to enact a selective excise tax on whiskey. He believed that the consumption of distilled spirits, “carried on to an [...]
The Exponent (West Lafayette, Ind.) Editorial
June 17, 2009
The United States’ taxing history begins with tea and, now with their most recent attempt, it might include another popular beverage: Soda.
The Senate Finance Committee is looking to pass a federal excise tax on soda and other drinks sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners.
Although we [...]
Appleton Post Crescent Editorial
June 16, 2009
One day, that fountain soda you sip at work or the six-pack of Coke you buy for your kids may cost you more.
But it’s for your own good, according to some lawmakers, who are looking at instituting a federal tax on sugary drinks to pay for the mammoth health care [...]
Times Record News
June 7, 2009
Even most smokers know the habit is bad.
People who take a nip now and then understand too much alcohol can lead to serious problems. That’s why even when it chafes a little, most American’s don’t complain too loudly about federal “sin” taxes on potentially harmful products.
But now members of the powerful [...]
Huffington Post
June 3, 2009
By Susan K. Neely President and CEO of the American Beverage Association
This piece is a response to a Huffington Post Column by Michael Jacobson: “Fizzy Math: Tax Soda to Pay for Health Care and Prevention;” May 29, 2009.
The United States has a daunting task before it: funding health care reform. It is [...]
May 26, 2009
By Kathy Warwick, Special to The Clarion-Ledger
I am anxiously awaiting the first crop of my home-grown tomatoes, and I am sure there are many mouths watering at the thought of this summertime treat.
What if you opened your paper tomorrow and you read a news story that claimed tomatoes were a deadly vegetable? The [...]
AC – Associated Content
May 28, 2009
By Joe Del Casino
The president is now considering a tax on sugary soft drinks (a “soda tax”), ostensibly to improve U.S. healthcare by focusing on “preventive care,” in this case, by mitigating obesity, a leading global healthcare concern. The real motive behind the tax is to partially offset the cost [...]
USA Today
June 4, 2009
By Dick Armey
As Congress and the president look to expand government’s role in health care, taxpayers are left singing the old Waylon Jennings line, “Your thirst for riches is more than my pockets can stand.” But with the Obama administration’s health care plan predicted to cost $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over [...]
