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 Senate Finance Committee are pushing for a federal tax on soda pop and other sugar-sweetened drinks.

The idea is to funnel the money raised from fat-inducing, teeth-rotting sugar into overhauling health care.

Get real.

First, given the track record of the federal government on health care, believing that having Uncle Sam tax our Dr. Peppers will resolve the mess is like believing Al Franken is going on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

Second, since when did Congress cease to be a legislative branch and begin to be a nanny?

Residing deep in our collective memory is the recollection this country was founded on the right of individual liberty — and that somehow we managed to survive and thrive for 233 years without Washington dictating what we should eat and drink. Following the logic of the backers of this illogical proposal, Washington should be able to tax anything that can conceivably be construed as a threat to our health. Given the evidence that 100 percent of all people who breathe eventually die, look for lawmakers to impose an oxygen tax.

Stripped of its noble-sounding packaging, the soda tax is just another ruse for the government to get its hands into our pockets.

Maybe lawmakers think in the current shell-and-pea mayhem of taxpayer-funded bailouts of the nation’s industrial and financial infrastructure, we won’t mind just a little more sticky-fingered pickpocketing.

Maybe the time has come to move beyond tea parties to a root beer rebellion.