Taxing Soda to Fight Obesity
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2009-10-05/taxing-soda-fight-obesity
Americans love our Coke and Pepsi, but are soft drinks making us fat? Talk of a "soda tax" to discourage consumption and raise revenues has energized both both health advocates and libertarians. We'll explore how a tax on sugared beverages would impact obesity and the nation's coffers.
Guests
Michael Jacobson
Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Susan Neeley
President and CEO, American Beverage Association
Comments
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Instead of taxing the sodas, why don't we get down to one of the major root causes? Corn subsidies. We have an overabundance of corn due to our government subsidies. Corn is processed into the unhealthy high-fructose corn syrup that is cheap to use but is wrecking the health of the American people.
In addition, greed is also making us fatter. The corporations in the food industry are making portions larger so that they can make an extra penny or more.
This issue is larger than soda.
Hello,
Other reasons to tax and discourage soda consumption are environmental issues.
Even if consumers are recycling the bottles there is still a much larger carbon foot print than drinking tap water out of a stainless steel bottle.