Obama Open to 'Sin Tax' on Soda

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Sorry don't eat yogurt and neither tofu, Pollution damage the air, because breathing air is a requirement for human existence and also the entire living world

reply to post by mikerussellus


I think we are going to have to come up with a suitable dowry to get the Queen to take this mess back!

She isn't exactly known for her charity!

reply to post by tothetenthpower


It starts out at just .5 cents, millions and millions of times a day. Then it's .10 cents, and then .25, and then 1.00.

It's just another illegal tax from a Federal Government never given the legal power to tax except in time of war so it wouldn't grow to be the all intrusive powerful and invasive thing that can tax you on every little thing you do and regulate every little thing you do and attempt to try to control every little thing you do.

reply to post by marg6043


I'm with you, marg. I do have an occasional soda, and I won't mind a bit paying tax on it. If it gets to be too much... I'll stop buying it! There's a novel idea.

To me this is violence..not aboutt he prtesting but about forcing people to take something they dont want. its an individuls decision to make, no one else. Thier answer, is to lock up in captivity those who oppse it. Is this what the fed and obama deem as cvilized manor?

Hmmm... a sin tax for something detrimental to our health.

I say we start taxing the bejesus out of the government itself. After all, they are the single entity most detrimental to the health of America and, in turn, Americans. You want to get to the root of America's obesity problem, it's called stress and a great deal of it is caused by these asshats in COngress, the Senate, the White House, the 50 governor's chairs across the nation, etc. START LETTING US REGULATE WHAT WE PUT IN OUR OWN BODIES, OR ELSE WE JUST VERY WELL MAY PUT A BOOT IN YOUR ASS AS WE VOTE YOU ALL OUT OF POWER.

(If this passes, I will just start selling contraband cigarettes to meet the new tax, rob Peter to pay Paul, y'know? I do not drink soda, but I'll sure as hell be more than happy to sell it cut rate to those that do... sans any of this tax crap.)

Obama does NOT represent me... taxation without representation MUST stop now.

Edit to add: BH supporting an idiotic Obama idea, now there's a surprise!

[edit on 9-9-2009 by burdman30ott6]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Although I do agree with your logic Friend, you have to admit, this is a very small thing to be up in arms about.

There are many other initiatives that are far more sinister than this one.

If it was a tax something that was actually good for you and that you enjoyed, ok, I would be PO'ed, But it's on SODA.

Something that really should be taken off the market since it accounts for the increase in Diabetes among children and the diet stuff with aspertame? Don't even get me started.

~Keeper

reply to post by ziggy1706


All taxes are violent and offensive. If you dont pay them they come after you and your property with armored cars, helicopters, machine guns and dozens if not hundreds of government troops to take what they have decided you owe them by force.

Tax is rape. Regardless of why it is levied and what it is being used for. It's absolute rape. Violent, traumatic and evil to its core.

Originally posted by dzonatas

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Another amazingly stupid idea from the President who loves to talk to hear him self talk especially when it’s in front of a camera he can see himself on.

That was my dumb idea. He gave out his personal e-mail address when he took office. Not hard to send him ideas. If it appears as if he takes these ideas and speaks to the people as if it is his own, then he has performed his constitutional job as legally obligated!

Do you have any bright ideas?

Yes I do! Stop chasing rainbows, it's true Magic Charms or Luckily Delicious but you don't need to catch a Leprichan to get a box, just visit your local grocer, and...wow talk about sugar, could it be the sugar laden breakfast cereals brought to us by general mills are much more responsible for childhood obesity than the good folks at Coca Cola...Have a Coke and a Smile is my good advice, and make it cheaper, not more expensive.

The government is too large and bloated already and needs to downsize and stop intruding in people's lives and taxing them to death.

Me having Soda in my refigerator does not translate into you having to have it in yours, making me pay an additional tax for something that is a LEGAL product that is widely distributed and legal to advertise is JUST WRONG.

The more you eat into people's descretionary incomes with taxes the more it slows down and retards the economy and robs their and everyone else's way of life.

We need less taxation and higher wages, not more taxation and higher prices!

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Obama does NOT represent me... taxation without representation MUST stop now.

If you live in the US, you have a representative. You are represented. Talk to your representative.

Edit to add: BH supporting an idiotic Obama idea, now there's a surprise!

And burdman making a snide comment about BH's opinions... Now there's a surprise!

Look. I think it's a good idea, not an idiotic idea. People who are bogging down the health care industry and driving up the prices of my health insurance with their unhealthy life choices should have to pay more than the person who eats healthily and takes care of themselves. You'll excuse me while I finish our dinner salad...

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


She isn't adverse to charity, you know!

I don't think she's George III, or anything. And we'll have you back on the condition you have a "tea party" over your pop culture. On the plus side, we'll have one about ours, too. And while we're at it, everyone else can do the same thing. Nobody needs to hear German happy hardcore or French rap.

I'm starting to really like the idea of chucking a wagon-load of pop 'stars' into the ocean...

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Although I do agree with your logic Friend, you have to admit, this is a very small thing to be up in arms about.

There are many other initiatives that are far more sinister than this one.

If it was a tax something that was actually good for you and that you enjoyed, ok, I would be PO'ed, But it's on SODA.

Something that really should be taken off the market since it accounts for the increase in Diabetes among children and the diet stuff with aspertame? Don't even get me started.

~Keeper

Your arguments are educational related ones, where the burden should be placed on the corporations that sell them to put disclaimers on their products and ultimately if the products are unsafe then it's up to the government not to tax people for consuming and using them but to prohibit their sale and make them illegal.

What you fail to see is that the government just becomes a partner with the so called 'merchants of death' and profits of it as well by further punishing the very people you want to save.

It's as faulty a notion as preemptive war. You never hear the Military Industrial Complex or their political stooges talking about preemptive peace. Why? Because there is no profit in peace.

The government is more than empowered and capable through the Surgeon General and the FDA to compell warnings, educational programs, restrict advertising etc, etc, if saving people is the motive.

This is profiting off of not saving people and their vices.

It is in reality my life to do with what I will as long as I am not hurting others in the process, my glass of soda hurts no one, and the arguments that the health system has to pay for this ultimately is a ludicrous and selfish one.

Where does it all end, us all living in a mutual ashram numbered instead of named, identically clothed, housed, fed, and appointed?

Think about what you are advocating and then think about just where the line is ever going to be drawn.

Originally posted by marg6043
Well taking into consideration that soda like cigarettes are life style choices that can affect health I have not problem with a sin tax.

I don't drink sodas and neither smoke cigarettes, I am all for it.

That is the attitude that allows for more government intrusion into our lives. As long as you are not directly effected by it then who cares.

Soda does not make people fat as long as your not drinking several cans of it a day. I personally don't like soda very much but do enjoy a coke with a meal once in a while. Any food or drink when consumed in excess can cause people to become fat so why stop at soda? Lets allow the government to tax anything that could cause people to be fat.
Sin tax on: pizza, cheese burgers, steak, cookies, cake, chips...all of it. Tax us to death....

Don't be fooled into thinking this a tax to help the people. You know very well that this tax will not keep people from drinking soda. They will just pay the extra money and go on drinking it.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


That's a great way of putting it PT, I appreciate that kind of response. It changes my perspective.

I agree that it's a road that never ends.

And yes they should put warning's on their labels. It should be a lawful requirement. However the FDA are in the pockets of the merchants of death, therefore don't need to.

Strange thing who they all work together against us huh?

But still I think that it's an innocent enough thing when it comes to Soda. Now if it was bread or something that we needed on a daily basis that contributed to my health, I would as upset as you are.

Perhaps because I live in Canada and we pay an extra 10cents a for bottles here, and 5 cents for cans. We are just use to it I guess.

Edit to add: I am also a Libertarian, so I know where you are coming from. We have to work with what we have unfortunetly. Hopefully it will burn down soon enough and we can go to the way things should be.

~Keeper

[edit on 9/9/2009 by tothetenthpower]

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Look. I think it's a good idea, not an idiotic idea. People who are bogging down the health care industry and driving up the prices of my health insurance with their unhealthy life choices should have to pay more than the person who eats healthily and takes care of themselves. You'll excuse me while I finish our dinner salad...

OK, let's run with this. Why are we stopping at soda, smokes, and booze? Let's also institute a sex tax because, after all, sex leads to babies, STDs, and often abortions... all which drive up our insurance rates! We need a driving tax because of auto accidents, a walking tax because of walking injuries, and a sitting tax because sloth is unhealthy. Holy hell, how can I forget about the tax we need for people who don't eat enough fiber in their diet? (treatment of other people's piles are driving up your insurance rates, BH!) but. then again, if you eat too much fiber you could get the squirts, which also exacerbates the 'roids, leading to insurance costs as well.... Oh what to do, WHAT TO DO!?!?!

and yeah, I did make a snide, yet insightfull, comment about you. As reliable as the sun rising in the East is Benevolent Heretic's certain agreement with anything and everything B.H. (Wow, the initials are even the same! Eeeeerie!) Obama says or does that generates controversy amongst his detractors here on ATS.

Originally posted by Sargon of Akkad
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

I'm starting to really like the idea of chucking a wagon-load of pop 'stars' into the ocean...

We need to start chucking our politicians into the ocean...

Second line.

reply to post by Erasurehead


Thanks BH,

Now for you erasurehead, you can not be more wrong, obviously you have not been around my post and thread a lot a "government butt kisser I am not.



But taking into consideration that now we may have a new health care reform that will force us into paying for insurance premiums regarless what we want or not, you bet your butt that I am going to be for anything that is taxable that has to do with life choices if I have the time to take care of myself and stay away from what is considered unhealthy to my body why can not you too

If I am to pay for your health care you better take care of yourself and what you put in your body.

frogs.

hot water.

.05 cents here.

.10 cents there.

Awwww shucks mistur prezydent, yew can hav it all!

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I can appreciate your reasoned approach but the reality is that the more you tax people on sinful little indulgences the more debilitating it becomes for the citizen who will pay the tax anyway and simply skip something additional that is healthier for them.

I have friends in the cable TV business who marvel that people will go to any lengths to not have their cable disconnected even if it means not eating or other basic necessities.

This is how people are, because the little things that bring you comfort in life are the things that make life comfortable to people.

The more you tax them to enjoy those trivial indulgences the less likely they will ever reach a social economic level of prosperity that leads to greater education and awareness.

Bazooka Bubble Gum used to (I imagine they still do) put cartoon wrappers around it's gum on the inside wrapper. As a kid we got the little .2 cent pieces of Bazooka Gum in part because it was cheap but in part because we wanted to read the cartoons.

The Chinese though but age old wisdom of no laughing matter in their Fortune Cookies. About as much sugar as one or the other, and just like Bazooka Joe Bubble gum people who crave fortune cookies crave the fortune inside of them.

One (Bazooka Joe) is a mindless affair that does not enrich you spiritually or intellectually in any way.

One (the fortune cookie) is a thought provoking experience in spiritual and intellectual wisdom that gives you truly useful knowledge.

Both cost about .2 cents, one isn't even worth 2 cents (bazooka Joe) one is priceless (The fortune Cookie)

Educate don't tax! It can be done!

Originally posted by Griever0311

Originally posted by Sargon of Akkad
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

I'm starting to really like the idea of chucking a wagon-load of pop 'stars' into the ocean...

We need to start chucking our politicians into the ocean...

Second line.

The ocean is already too full of toxic waste!

I am afraid we are going to have to tax you for dumping politicians into the ocean.

Unless of course you want to dump them off the coast of Somolia