Soda Tax, your thoughts?

Try being realistic.

On one hand you wouldn't have to pay this tax if you do not buy these products, as junk food is bad for you, and non-essential - like a tax on cigarettes.

On the flip-side however, I also think it can become a slippery slope; candy bars are bad for you, sugary cereals are bad for you, ice cream is bad for you, cheeseburgers are bad for you, etc.

The other big problem I have with this, is that diet drinks will not carry this proposed tax, but aspertame is even more dangerous to your health than corn syrup or sugar, and what about foods with MSG, high saturated fat levels, heavy metals, etc?

It's complicated, but I do believe our food choices should be healthier in general. As long as the US diet consists of corn syrup, MSG, aspertame, and tons of processed foods, coupled with less exercise than ever before, clearly SOMETHING must be done before we are either all obese, or paying for all of those of us who are, via higher health care costs.

I am pro-capitalism, but I am anti-large corporate interests. We should not become lab experiments for the big corps, while they rack in giant profits. When sodas used sugar instead of corn syrup things were not this bad, but corn syrup is cheaper, so now the junk foods we consume are more harmful than ever before, and don't even get me started on aspertame...

Studies done on schools that removed soda machines and replaced them with machines that dispensed real fruit juice showed virtually no difference in obesity among it's students. Naturally occurring sugar can be abused as well. Nobody intends for us to drink a gallon of natural orange juice, only a small glass once per day.

Beware the "healthier choice" baloney, it's just a demarcation "tax from here......... to here".

Governments will tax anything under the pretends of health, they are just being creative in raising tax income and don't really care about you being fat or not

I have always supported a 500%+ tax on unhealthy food. I have no problem with it. You can be skinny, gay, black or white - the fact remains the shit is NOT good for you. No one should drink it.

You're completely correct. But the bi product of it is that people MAY get healthier. So it's a good thing even in principal. Tax cigs, shitty food, whatever in any time. It's not good for you.

If that's the case, why not simply ban anything unhealthy?

Pretty dumb idea.. I mean lets get real, sure sodas aren't good for you, but they aren't the reason people are fat.. They should tax McDonnalds and so on if that were the case or all the other junk food out there.. Why just single out one product?

Did the soda companies not pay their lobbyist or something this month?

Another possible solution could be to impose higher taxes and/or penalty fees on the companies that are poisoning us. Simply clarify what products are considered poisonous and/or harmful, and penalize accordingly. We all know corn syrup, MSG, processed flour, lead, mercury, and aspertame are all horrible for us (as a starting point), so it should cost more for the big corps to poison us with these type of things.

The problem is that the big corp interests run Washington, and that fact becomes more and more obvious every fucking day.

Rather than demonizing Obama, the whole country should unite against these big corp interests instead. These companies are happy when we redirect our anger on the Dem-Rep battle. They do their best to fan the flames. This takes the spotlight off of them, allowing them the freedom to do whatever they want.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo..........

I went to my children's back to school night to meet their teachers and get an overview of school shit. Same old bullshit until one teacher had a glass jar filled with M&M?S® and we had to guess how many were in there. The winner was an obese woman. I was like great she'll probably just save them or use them as a treat. Well, she made a comment that made heads turn. She said, "I'm gonna give it to the kids as a snack before they go to bed."
Turns out that all of her kids are obese and bring soda to lunch.

I don't think she consciously knows that she is killing her kids or the very least making them ill. Taxing soda would not even address the obesity problem we have in the United States.

A parent who is obese and has children who are obese should be required to go to a some kind of "AA" meeting. This meeting should educate them on foods that are healthy and what to feed a growing child. Obesity seems like a cycle because obese people hang out with other obese people.

No matter what you tax people will be upset... I don't see that much of a problem honestly.

So, they want to collect more of that paper stuff that they put value on from sales of beverages, that companies manufacture to generate more paper stuff that they put value on? All the while, these products, and valuable paper are being taken from the Earth and not returned. So, in essense, humans steal from the planet, then put value on the things they steal, then try forcing other humans to purchase stolen goods with valuable paper that was also stolen from the Earth.

Honestly, it's all just a big joke IMO.

Its all about how you "frame" the argument against "big corp". Republicans have become masters at protecting their interest and framing the argument to their favor.

What I want to know is this... Once they collect all this valuable paper, where does it go? Do they use it to better the planet for everyone? Or do they use it to generate more nonsensical valuable paper transactions globally for other various stolen goods?

One proposal is calling for what works out to be a 12% tax.