Where my money?

Alexander Kaiser, pooliestudios.com / Flickr

 

New York Times health reporter Margot Sanger-Katz, who has cheer-leaded for increased taxes on soda for some time, published an article yesterday in praise of Philadelphia’s “novel strategy” to promote its proposed (and likely to pass) measure increasing the price of sweetened drinks by one-and-a-half cents per ounce.

The game-changing strategy to sell a regressive tax that will disproportionately hit the pockets of the poor, as well as grant even more power to the government to regulate the personal choices of private citizens? Framing it as a revenue source, rather than as a do-gooder health measure.

While it is true that there is an obesity crisis in this country and high-calorie and sugary drinks certainly do play their part in expanding American waistlines (though that part is frequently overstated), like so many Nanny State initiatives, Philadelphia’s proposed tax is confusingly inconsistent right out of the gate.