California Sen. Dean Florez is proposing a new law in our state that would impose a penny sales tax for every teaspoon of sugar in a can of soda. That's about 10 cents added to the price of each can. His thinking ~ Americans are too fat. Soda is the culprit. Not all soda. Diet soda (with its fake food ingredients) is okay. Unadulterated soda (the "real" stuff) has sugar in it. Sugar is bad. Sugar is making us fat. Ergo, we will tax people for drinking sugar-laden soda. That increased financial burden will force us to change our habits and get us to switch to the diet stuff and thus become fat free.
Oh, one small benefit of taxing soda ~ it could raise $1.5 billion for our cash-strapped schools.
So which is it? Florez wants to prevent obesity or he wants to make lots of money? And while he's at it, what about all the other foodstuffs that are making us fat? Do they get a free ride?
You can tell I have been reading the newspaper again.
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