Soda/Obesity Tax?

[flakey chick]

Quote:
Well in some sense the tax is just pay back for the subsidies. It would be more efficient just to stop subsidizing the high fructose corn syrup, the price would rise to reflect the fair cost. But we can't have that. Iowa has the first primary and it would be disaster to a politician's career to vote against subsidizing corn.

I do think the school system bears some of the blame for the increased obesity. Schools are cutting back on the amount of time students are allowed to exercise or play. They have to spend more time studying for standardized tests and only get an hour or two per week for P.E. It's not just the caloric intake- its the caloric balance.

Also here they have forced advertising. Every day kids are forced to watch commercials at school so the schools can get free AV equipment. When schools force impressionable children to watch junk food comercials and make them "sit still" instead of being active, the parents have a large burden counteract.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Quote:
Well in some sense the tax is just pay back for the subsidies. It would be more efficient just to stop subsidizing the high fructose corn syrup, the price would rise to reflect the fair cost. But we can't have that. Iowa has the first primary and it would be disaster to a politician's career to vote against subsidizing corn.

I do think the school system bears some of the blame for the increased obesity. Schools are cutting back on the amount of time students are allowed to exercise or play. They have to spend more time studying for standardized tests and only get an hour or two per week for P.E. It's not just the caloric intake- its the caloric balance.

Also here they have forced advertising. Every day kids are forced to watch commercials at school so the schools can get free AV equipment. When schools force impressionable children to watch junk food comercials and make them "sit still" instead of being active, the parents have a large burden counteract.

I wouldn't count on stopping the subsidies, especially when a successful presidential candidates jet was provided by ADM during the campaign.

On another note part of the child obesity problem is the very thing that allows us to communicate like this. The computer, and the gaming systems children no longer play like they used to, they sit watching tv, playing video games, or like us they sit behind a computer screen. I would suspect this is also responsible for some of the increase in the adult obesity. Food intake is only part of the problem, most of us grew up in a time of mom's pies, where pork and red meat were at every meal, and we ate a lot of bread and drank gallons of milk. Let's not forget the sweet tea and kool-aid. But we were active, there were no game boys, or facebook, myspace or BYC. I honestly do not know what the answer is but it is not taxes.

 

[Boyd]

instead of this new taxes etc I would love to see a Fair Tax enabled..... Lot of hoopla about it during the elections and primaries. This way the 20 million illegal immigrants here help pay their fair share of the taxes, the uber wealthy and the uber poor are all held to the same level of taxation.

Of course the lobbiests objected, and of course there is the IRS which would be virtually out of business and billions and billions of dollars saved by shutting down that whole branch........... and then every H&R block would have to go back to doing accounting instead of charging 100$ + to do tax returns..........................


There is good to it though!




eta : www.fairtax.org

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=calculator and this is a calculator that will show you the difference between what you make and are taxed now or if this passes and goes into effect.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Sorry Boyd, it will never happen. The IRS is not just about collecting taxes, it is also about control and power. Any reduction in gooberment is a loss of control and power. IRS and social security are a effective way for our Uncle to watch us, just like UHC will be. They will not be happy until they control every aspect of our life. If the soft drink tax actually worked it would make itself useless, and that is not what the desire is. The desire is to take most everything and then give it back in moderation to herd us into the collective corral. Our rugged image of being a independent people able to adapt and improvise to meet our needs are being eroded into one huge nursing home for us all.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Yup.

Viva La Revolucion

 

[WalkingWolf]

Chickens are a good example of how our current gooberment works. They are completely capable of surviving on their own, but we have taught them to be dependent on us for their existence, and we then control them.

I only feed my chickens when I want them to do something for me. Some are fed in pens that lay eggs for me to sell for income. My free ranging chickens I only feed when I want them to come in for the night, and when I need to do a chore without them pestering me for food. And the more I feed them the more dependent they become and the more they pester me. If I would feed them enough they would completely forget after time how to forage for their own food and become lazy and FAT waiting on me to feed them. I could even make that worse by feeding them subsidized bad food and then butchering them (fat tax) because they become fat. But their are some benefits to this as I give them Universal Health Care at MY discretion. BTW when they get to old to be of use to me when they get sick I will probably euthanize them.

In all this I find it odd that earmarks have been increased to ADM, and corn syrup subsidies increased while we are talking about taxing the chickens for getting fat.

 

[Boyd]

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of* no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.

 

[Wifezilla]

While I believe sugar and refined carbohydrates are responsible for a majority of illnesses and conditions requiring long term medical care, I have no confidence a single penny of this type of tax would actually go towards eliminating the problem.

After all, the government subsidizes grain and other carbohydrate production and then bemoans the result (obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc....)

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
This is sure to get the thread closed, but I'd really like to address your points here, Boyd.

First, if I make $30,000/yr and spend it all just to stay alive, I'm being taxed on 100% of my income.. If I make $25,000/yr and it takes me $30,000/yr and several credit cards to stay alive, I'm actually being taxed on 120% of my income...

If, on the other hand, I make $3,000,000 and I spend half of it, I can live like a king and I'm still only getting taxed on 50% of my income..

I just can't see how a system that taxes rich people at a much lower rate and poor people at a much higher rate is a "fair" tax...imho.


Second...as for illegals and taxes.. Does anyone really think that illegal immigrants escape taxes? When they put fuel in their cars, they pay fuel tax. If they buy things at the store, they pay sales tax.. If they have a telephone or cable or satellite or almost any kind of utility, they're likely paying excise taxes and school taxes and so forth.. If they rent a house, their rent helps pay property taxes.. If they drive a car, they pay registration fees and taxes and whotnot whether that car is actually in their name or not.. On and on it goes. It's easy to forget how many things we're taxed on until you start to consider the idea of someone avoiding taxes altogether. It's pretty much impossible in this day and age..

The real kicker, though, is that a HUGE number of illegals work under fake or alias social security numbers.. The IRS knows it, as they have something like 8MM+ numbers -- last I checked -- that looked wonky.. For instance, one number might be showing five or six jobs, which probably means there are five or six illegals who used that number to gain employment at a regular W-2 job. They pay taxes under that social, but guess what...they can never claim the return. My understanding is that most of the time, the people who broker the socials tell them to claim ZERO dependents on their taxes to ensure that no money is owed at the end of the year. If you don't owe, you don't legally have to file... If you don't file within 3 years, the IRS gets to keep what would have been refunded..

So, when you think about it...illegals may actually be overpaying their taxes!

Sure, there are some who work under the table and whatnot, but seriously...I can guarantee you that there are far more Americans than illegals working under the table.

So, those are my two counterpoints. Didn't mean to offend anyone...just wanted to put the other side out there.

 

[easttxchick]

Quote:
So, when you think about it...illegals may actually be overpaying their taxes!

The only response I have to that is...