Soda/Obesity Tax?

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Aww Mannn!! You've ruined School House Rock for me now!!!

And that's where I learned how a bill becomes a law!!

Me too (where bill becomes a law).

Remember the one about nutrition? "gotta eat the skin cause it's good for you too" is a quote from it. It was all about eating vegies and stuff. It may not have been a schoolhouse rock video but something else. I can't find it.

No...I'm thinking that may have come from somewhere else... I've seen most of them, and don't recall that line??? I loved when they came on in between Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid...Awww, the good old days...lol.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
They're trying to sneak it in quietly, without upsetting too many people, or until its too late for those people to stop it.

Same with the cig tax, smokers have been demonized for so long, nobody cared what the hell happened to them, the tax went through without a hitch, because they're taxing the "bad" people.

it will be one thing at a time. I don't know why they bother with trying to be sneaky - just very tax everything MORE already.

(so much for the promise of no more tax)

Cigs went up to $8 a pack here on 10/1. Half of my smoker friends are rolling their own now.

The sad thing is most smokers want to quit but we all know how hard that can be. This won't help them quit. It just makes the financial burden harder which results in more stress and even less chance of quitting.

 

[onthespot]

I don't think they should try to control it at the intake point. I think they should, if we ever go to a single payor health care system, put all co-paymens ranked by scale of general health parameters that are controllable. Weight, smoking, drinking, drug abuse are the big four that come to mind. A person cannot help, for example if they are born with sickle cell, or cystic fibrosis. They cannot help if they were in a car accident and their pancreas had to be removed and they are now completely insulin dependent diabetic. They cannot help if mental illness runs in their family and they got tagged with it. But the VAST MAJORITY of health care dollars go to treating the effects of poor health choices, lifelong health choices. Heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, dental and general oral heath, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Lung Cancer, Oral and throat and stomach cancers, colon cancers, skin cancers from tanning beds or just refusing to use sun screen... I am guilty of weighing too much and not exercising like I should. The main exercise I get every day is taking care of 100 poultry pets. Not good enough. I work nights and eat junk to stay awake. (carrot sticks don't cut it) Raising taxes on my sodas, pppffft!! So what? I need to stay awake, so I can earn a living and make my mortgage. Hmmmm.... should I pay an extra dollar here or there, or quit my job and bail on my house? Should I? DARE I?? Nah! I think I will keep working and make my next monts's payment. Bring on your li'l ol ten or fifteen extra dollars tax. Just chalk it up to a cost of doing business.

However! If instead, I get a forty or fifty dollar break every month on my insurance premium if I keep my weight right, drop my blood pressure, increase my aerobic fitness... I'd be all over it. THAT would be a bigger motivator to me. Even if it pencils out the same, taxing me more, would not be a deterrent, but allowing me to earn a break... for some reason that would appeal to me.

That is my two cents worth. Now where's my dang tv remote???

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

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I have to agree with PC here. I was a smoker until 2007. No change in prices would have "forced" me to quit. When a smoker quits, it's because they're ready, not because "Uncle Sam" says they should.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Me too (where bill becomes a law).

Remember the one about nutrition? "gotta eat the skin cause it's good for you too" is a quote from it. It was all about eating vegies and stuff. It may not have been a schoolhouse rock video but something else. I can't find it.

No...I'm thinking that may have come from somewhere else... I've seen most of them, and don't recall that line??? I loved when they came on in between Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid...Awww, the good old days...lol.

Remember this guy?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
I have to agree with PC here. I was a smoker until 2007. No change in prices would have "forced" me to quit. When a smoker quits, it's because they're ready, not because "Uncle Sam" says they should.

quit in 2005. I took 3 drags off one of my friends hand rolled cigs last night. I know it was stupid but I was so curious. It was so goooood. Thank God it gave me a head rush and made me queezy cause now I don't want one again.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Oh HECK no! I want the freedom to drink soda without being taxed for it!!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
The tax BREAK idea is a good one. It creates more of a positive enforcement strategy than a negative one. If folks can get a tax break rather than a tax increase for their behavior, that's better any day. Psychology lesson, anyone?

 

[wombat]

I'm against it.

I'm fundamentally against the taxation policies that have evolved of late, where the government takes more of your money, and then gives you some of it back if you do what they want you to do.

Is it really going to make people "stop and think" before they buy soda?

To what extent is it the government's responsibility to protect us from ourselves? Requiring nutritional information to be listed, so that I know what the manufacturer is putting in the food is a good idea. Telling me what I should eat was my mother's job, and she lost that job a long time ago.

This is also a very regressive tax. It will be a larger percentage of take-home pay for people who make low wages. That's not socially responsible governance.

 

[acdoc]

Does anyone know who's great idea this was?