Mommy protecting us…again
Posted by Bill Nance on December 18, 2008
Sure as Hell, the fat tax, long spoken of as a fringe slippery-slope argument is about to make its debut in New York. -At least if the Governor gets his way.
Yes, you guessed it, the State of New York is going to institute new taxes on sugared goodies like soda pop in order to protect us all from the evils of obesity.
God forbid someone just expect us to exercise self-control. Oh noes, that would be too hard. Instead, lets impose a new revenue measure, aimed primarily at the poor, and call it “promoting health.”
From Governor Patterson of New York in an op-ed on CNN:
What smoking was to my parents’ generation, obesity is to my children’s generation. Nearly one out of every four New Yorkers under the age of 18 is obese. In many high-poverty areas, the rate is closer to one out of three.
That is why, in the state budget I presented last Tuesday, I proposed a tax on sugared beverages like soda. Research has demonstrated that soft-drink consumption is one of the main drivers of childhood obesity.
Here’s a unique thought: Leave us the Hell alone. If people want to die a few years before their time as a result of over-eating and lack of exercise, that’s their problem, not Mommy government’s.
Ideas like this are every bit as pernicious as dildo bans. The positions are the same, only the flavor of government tyranny is different.
The Eclectic One 
kempite said
Hell yeah!
Does anyone expect us to believe that they are imposing taxes out of concern for our health? If that was true, they would make cigarettes illegal instead of profitting from them like a drug dealer taking his cut from a sale.
If their tax on regular soda, as opposed to diet soda, was out of concern for our health, why are they simultaneously raisng a tax on gym memberships? If health was their motivation they should be offering incentives to join a gym, not penalize you for it and making it more expensive.
What is the health driven reason for taxing the downloading of itunes? What health effect is a tax on that preventing people from suffering from?
It is one thing for leaders to be irresponsible and make tough economic times harder on people than they already are, but it is another thing to blatantly lie to the people.
For those who believe the excuses made by liberals like Paterson, meet me in Brooklyn. I have a great bridge to sell to you at a price that is a steal.
Of course, Paterson and Obama will make it unaffordable with their taxes but who cares. If you run out of money, the government will cough it up for you and bail you out.