Why the Government Should Not Tax My Coca-Cola

The government in its infinite wisdom, which is obviously overflowing, is discussing additional taxes on sugary soft drinks to help fight the obesity problem in this country. Of course, they're using the health angle again.

Why is the government so concerned about our health if we aren't? Could it be that the longer we live, the longer we have to work now that the economy is in the toilet, and the more taxes we will have to pay. They've already moved the retirement age from 65 to 70. We future Social Security recipients have already realized we may never see a penny of the money we paid into that.

Anybody who has enough sense to hear, see and read knows that too much sugar is not good for the human body. Too much of anything is not good for the body, even exercise. I had a friend who ran five miles everyday and even participated in marathons. Unfortunately, he dropped dead from a heart attack at 50 years old one day while he was running. He drank water. I would have considered him in excellent condition. But on the other hand, he wasn't obese.

The very idea that the our government singles out a certain group people for unfair taxation is not reasonable to me. What happened to individual rights? If I choose a sugary drink for myself, that is a choice, an individual choice. If the government chooses to raise the tax on that individual choice, I will probably pay a little more. The idea worked so well with the added cigarette tax, didn't it? I have yet to run into one smoker who has quit because of the recent tax hike.

If I believed that the tax money that was charged on sugary drinks would be used for a good purpose by our government instead of falling into that black hole up there in Washington, I might be a little more in favor of it. So far, any excess tax money coming in only seems to instigate some new program that feeds the ever-growing debt.

I'm a Diet Coke drinker. Is the government going to raise the price of regular Coca-Cola and not my Diet Coke? It would be discriminating against me to tax me for something that doesn't have sugar. On the other hand, my daughter, who weighs 100 pounds on a good day, drinks Coca-Cola every day of her life. Why should she have to pay added tax?

It is no secret that the people in this country are now carrying much more weight than their forefathers. One major difference I have seen is the lack of exercise. My non-driving grandmother lived in the city and walked down to her local grocery, pharmacy and shopping center. If she needed to go downtown for some reason, she took a city bus where she got off at the nearest stop and walked the rest of the way. Many of my relatives did physical labor from sunrise to sunset. Most all of these people lived to be ripe old ages.

As far as stopping children from drinking sugary drinks and eating fattening foods, this is not the government's responsibility. That is a parent's responsibility. If their kids do not have the money for such things, they will not buy such things. Taxing sugary drinks is not going to stop a child from buying it, and it's not going to stop a parent from allowing it.

If the government is so concerned about the obesity problem in children, why was the required physical education in schools discontinued? It seems to me that we can expect no less when the only time children see the outdoors anymore is when they walk to the car.

I agree that there are more obese children today than when I was young, and true, we didn't gorge ourselves on Big Macs and Cokes. Kool-Aid and sweet tea was probably the most sugary things in our household. But on the other hand, our school lunches consisted of vegetables, fish and other healthy foods. Our only choice was to eat it or not eat it. Today in school cafeterias students are served choices of hotdogs, pizza, hamburgers, French fries or a healthy meal with vegetables. Guess which they usually choose? I hear no talk about taxing those foods.

If we continue to allow our elected officials to tax what they consider unnecessary evils, then I think everyone should make their own list to mail to their representative. I have several things that I would like to see taxed, starting with those car speakers that people buy to put in their cars that cause my house to vibrate when they drive down my street.

Source:

Common sense