Soft Drink Tax To Fight Obesity

Some of you may have been reading about this for last few months, but some U.S. officials are proposing an excise tax for sugary soft drinks.  Health experts from New York, Yale and Harvard, among others claim current taxes don’t go far enough to curtail abuse of these beverages, which play a key role in the obesity epidemic.  They liken these taxes to the taxes currently imposed on tobacco companies.  The plan is to add a tax of one cent, per ounce of beverage, which will increase the cost by 15 to 20 percent.   The purpose of this is two fold: 1) to generate extra revenue at a federal and state level, which could be use to fund public health efforts (ahem, health care reform), 2) to discourage the over-consumption of these drinks, and hopefully affect obesity rates by decreasing daily caloric intake.

Not surprisingly, a large beverage industry group is vehemently opposed to any such taxes.  This group is composed of some familiar names – Welch’s, McDonald’s, Burger King and Pepsi.  They acknowledge a serious obesity problem, but argue that more “comprehensive” programs are needed.  I actually agree with their contention that more complete solutions are needed to fight obesity, but taxing crappy drinks/food is a decent start as far as I’m concerned.  I’m sure junk/processed/fast food is in the crosshairs as well.  Stay tuned.

Source: Reuters

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