Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Tax on Soda Pop - Insanity at It's Finest

Have you been following the latest way Democrats around the country, from Washington state to New York, have been trying to find a new way to increase our taxes? The "Soda Pop Tax" is the latest fashion in tax and spend.

This one is particularly good because they come at us from the point of view of protecting our children from obesity -and no one wants fat kids running around. They tell us that this is not a way to increase revenues. This is a way we keep our kids fit and trim. By adding a dime or a quarter to the cost of a soda pop, our children will stop drinking themselves to death. The feds are a little more subtle because they combine the "combating obesity" with saying it is a source of funding to pay for Health Care Reform - so now you can lower your premiums by having a coke with your lunch....

They tell us that since some people can not be trusted not to eat themselves to death then the government, big brother, must step in and control them (and you). They use the excuse that since these people put themselves into a position where they eventually will need more medical care then you do, the government has a right to control their behavior and protect your tax dollars - And we go blindly along with it. Somehow we forget that this is the same government that, instead of spending those tax dollars on health care for our evil soda pop addicts, would prefer to send them to buy mosquito netting for poor people in Zimbabwe.

When? When? When are we going to get our priorities straight and concentrate on stopping the wasteful spending of our tax dollars by these corrupt politicians? Let's at least tell them to let us enjoy our candy bars in piece!

This is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start. My main complaint is that it is another underhanded way to sneak into our private lives, into our family business, and let the government control our behavior.

I am so tired of hearing them tell us that this needs to be done because people that drink too much cola are obviously unhealthy and need more attention from the Health Care System. That costs all of us - Just ignore the fact that under the new Health Care system these people will be forced to pay for their own health insurance or that none of these begins to address sky-rocketing costs or obscene profits by the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

But, before you go out and ring the taxes out of all these evil soda pop addicts, let's take a loser look at what the Democrats are really taxing:

  • New York state: They are proposing a new tax on "sugary drinks" -hows that for vague?
  • Washington state: Their version includes bottled water , candy, gum and "hazardous chemicals" - Now there's a good idea, let's protect the kids from all that bottled water!
  • Colorado state: To protect the kids from obesity they want to include pop, candy, pesticides and downloaded software..... somehow I missed their logic a little...
  • Philadelphia city: The Mayor says they need the tax to pay for trash collection and city services
  • California state: We can't let a good tax source get past us so our version includes soda plus anything you buy from Amazon and other on-line purchases.... (no, Jimmy, I am not kidding)
  • Federal Government: Not to be outdone Nancy Pelosi's Democrat Majority says a federal tax on obesity will pay for Health Care Reform.

You just can't make this stuff up. We go from ridiculous to insane in our quest for new taxes based, not on real or verified facts, but on good sound bites.

Please, Mr. Government man, get out of my personal life, get out of my pocket book and let me go back to just being just a good old free, liberty loving American again, quietly drinking himself to death on tax-free diet coke....

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