Commercials invading the NY airwaves this week claim to seek support for taxing sugary sodas as a means to make a dent in obesity and weight based illnesses; a sound approach until you look more closely at the vagueness of the proposal.     While soda products do not possess any nutritional value,  healthy juice products can  also have high carbohydrate and sugar content.  Further, the  alternative diet products contain skyrocketing sodium content,  can lead to high blood pressure and circulatory diseases, so where will legislature draw the line? PKU sufferers cannot ingest aspartame, and will likely have to apply for exemption under this proposal to escape such tax.  And will that tax extend to school cafeterias and vending machines? Small businesses, like restaurants and mom & pop owned convenience stores, will particularly feel this pinch.

For all the revenue estimated with proposals like this, comes the waste on payroll for staff  'required' to monitor it, and grant exceptions.   Instead, I propose a modern era Prohibition on purchasing soda with food stamps, heck, let's not stop there, how about prohibiting the purchase of all crap with food stamps?  NY State has over 10% of its population eligible/receiving food stamps.   According to several studies by the US Dept of Agriculture, Ohio State University, food stamp recipients, particularly women, were heavier, with higher BMI and increased risk of obesity than their non-eligible counterparts.    Interestingly, the overweight female food stamp recipients did not see themselves as having  a weight problem, which compounded their poor health, as they were unlikely to  discontinue poor dietary choices.   To drive the point home, the Bronx leads the nation with 29% of its population receiving food stamps; no surprise it weighs in with the highest rates of  Obesity and Diabetes.   Prohibition will also save in the long term by decreasing the added expense of caring for these individuals in their later diabetic, diseased-plagued years.   And here's the rub, since this is all state taxpayer supported, even if the non-eligible make responsible consumption choices, taxpayers will still get stuck paying the tax tab for the food stamp recipients, since they aren't paying their grocery bill to begin with! 

The well-meaning soda health-tax is really a way to take more money from food stamp ineligible residents [read: middle class pockets].  Interestingly, there is no initiative to increase the taxes on alcohol.  Perhaps that is because, while alcohol certainly takes its toll, that limits the revenue pool to only those over 21.   Since even a 3 year old can order a soda, millions of children will no longer be excluded from officially joining the ranks of taxpayers.