Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands

The nanny state, health police are at it again. First it was Tobacco. EEEEveeeeeel tobacco.

Sure it's stinky and gross, but it's a legal product and people have the choice of whether or not to use it.

Now it's SODA!

Apparently we are too stupid to assess the risks of drinking this poison and we need the government to start a campaign to re-educate us.

And a growing number of public health advocates are pushing for even more aggressive actions, urging that soda be treated like tobacco: with taxes, warning labels and a massive public health marketing campaign, all to discourage consumption.

Give me a break. I'm not overweight because I drink too much soda. I'm overweight because I don't exercise...I don't get enough sleep...and I don't eat right. All things that I could change if I had the will power and time (I keep hoping that having a child will get easier...I think I'm subconsciously smoking crack). Time is the biggest thing here...I work full time and have a hubby on a rotating schedule so I'm pretty much in charge 24 hours a day 7 days a week right now (although I will say he does help out when he's awake at 2 in the morning...at least it's something). There isn't a lot of extra time to hop on the Wii or run around the block...much as I'd like to (well, not the running part...I don't run).

“What you want,” says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, “is to reverse the fact that healthy food is too expensive and unhealthy food is too cheap, and the soda tax is a start. Unless food marketing changes, it’s hard to believe that anything else can work.”

These nanny state do-gooders are completely out of touch if they consider Soda to be a "cheap" food option. Soda is freaking expensive and a total drain of our wallets.

Increasing the tax won't produce the kind of "revenue" (aka taxes) they want...when you tax something you discourage it. Just like when they started taxing cigarettes more and more ... the revenue from the taxes decreased and never did reach the levels they anticipated. Nor do I believe the money was used for all of the purposes claimed...somehow I am guessing that a significant amount of the new "revenue" will find its way to "special" projects not at all related to 'educating', 'warning', or 'fighting' obesity.

The state of Washington recently screwed over the tax payers "suspended" Initiative 960, put into law by the citizens of the state to require a 2/3 majority vote by the legislature to raise taxes. It also required more transparency from the blood suckers politicians. So now the Queen Governor is proposing new taxes on everything she can think of...regardless of the consequences.

Gov. Chris Gregoire wants a total of $605 million in higher taxes to help fill the state's budget deficit, including larger levies on oil products, bottled water, pop, candy and cigarettes.

Screw the idea of fiscal responsibility and CUTTING spending! Just because the little people (aka me and my family) have to balance their check books and cut out unnecessary spending, don't expect those who lord over us to do the same. Tax my soda! Tax my candy! Tax the few things I enjoy. Oh and be sure to tax oil products so that all products get more expensive.

I certainly don't need the government to spend my tax dollars on a campaign to tell me that something is bad for me. I already know that. Anybody who has a pulse should know that too much sugar is bad for you. Parents who don't monitor their kids consumption are bad parents. Or they've weighed the risks and prefer a child hopped up on sugar and caffeine. THEIR kids...THEIR choice.

[As an aside...I certainly don't plan to let my boy drink soda ... of course, I say that now. :) I will never put Coke in his bottle...my mom has seen parents (more than one!) do that. That is almost child abuse IMHO. I don't even want my kid to have juice unless it's totally watered down. He can drink water and milk.]

Last time I looked this was still a free country. That means allowing people to be stupid, make choices that are bad for them, say offensive things, and eat crap that will make them fat. The government is already too involved in trying to run our lives ... "for our own good" of course.


They can have my Dr Pepper when they pry it out of my cold dead hands. I know the risks ... I enjoy drinking it! It tastes yummy and I like having it with a couple of meals. I KNOW that I need to cut back and I will...eventually. Probably when we're down to one salary and can't afford to buy it anymore. Until then, the government can suck it.