Below The Beltway

Public health nazis, fresh from their victory in the war on tobacco, are now focusing their energy on that true enemy of American health, sugar:

Doctors will this week declare war on America’s soft drinks industry by calling for a ‘fat tax’ to combat the nation’s obesity epidemic.

Delegates at the powerful American Medical Association’s annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.

(…)

But the medical association wants to go further. Delegates at its Chicago conference are gunning in particular for high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener which is added to everything from ketchup to cola.

One American politician labelled it the ‘crack of sweeteners’ because it is so widespread.

Some U.S. cities and states already levy taxes on soft drinks or junk foods that raise ?500million a year, said Michael Jacobsen, director of the Centre for Science and the Public Interest, an independent health watchdog. But earmarking tax revenue for programmes promoting better diet would be a first, he added.

And it appears that America’s politicans are already hard at work on the latest front in the war:

In the sweet fizzle of soda pop lurks a potent public health hazard, a major culprit in the epidemic of obesity that’s swept California’s children.

That’s the premise of a proposal in the California Legislature that would tax sugar-laden soft drinks and give the money to schools and to child nutrition and physical education programs.

SB 1520, by state Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, wouldn’t be the first soda tax in the country. Seven states have them, but none spend the money fighting obesity. This bill would go after soda specifically in the interest of public health, much as tobacco and alcohol were targeted decades ago.

“It is not my intention to demonize soda, or any particular food item,” Ortiz said. Soft drinks are part of a complex problem, she said, but they are also “worse that most other unhealthy foods” because kids drink so much of it and get no nutritive value.

And, when have you seen a politician who could pass up the opportunity to impose yet another new tax. But, of course, this being 21st century America, they can’t come right out and say it:

The tax might not discourage kids from buying a supersize soda, Mead said, but it might encourage the snack food industry, which markets massively to young children, to see the link between what they do and obesity and the diseases it causes.

“We live in a free country, our personal freedoms are important — for people to buy what they want and sell what they want,” she said. But today’s sophisticated marketing and promotions, she added, mean that argument isn’t as simple as it once was.

In other words, you’re free, but we’ll use the tax system to make sure you exercise your freedom in ways we approve.

Fortunately, not every state is as nutty as California, at least not yet:

HELENA, MT — A bill that would impose a 5-cent tax on every 12-ounce bottle of soda sold died during the committee process on March 8. Revenue generated from the tax would have been used to support elderly services and college scholarship funds, according to the Billings Gazette.

The Montana Senate Taxation Committee voted 6 to 5 to kill the legislation. In February, the committee also tabled legislation that sought to raise the state excise tax on beer in order to fund alcohol and drug treatment and prevention programs. Gov. Brian Schweitzer also has stated his opposition to tax increases as a means to balance the budget.

Soda tax legislation has failed to pass the Montana legislature for the past 10 years. The Montana Beverage Association and the state?s bottling and distributing industry has successfully lobbied against the tax on grounds that it unfairly targets soda sales in order to fund state programs unrelated to the soda industry.

Good for you, Montana, but I think the anti-soda Nazis are just getting started.

More at Outside The Beltway.