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Should We Tax Soda?

The Senate is considering various ways to pay for a health care system overhaul. One option is to start taxing things that are contributing to health problems such as obesity, and sodas are in the cross-hairs.

From The Wall Street Journal:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California lawmaker introduced legislation on Thursday that would tax sodas and other sugar-sweetened drinks and use the proceeds to bankroll programs to fight childhood obesity.
The bill, introduced by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, would slap a 1-cent levy on every teaspoon of added sugar and other caloric sweeteners in commercial beverages sold.

First Cigarettes, Now Bacon and Eggs

You knew it was coming.

First they came for the cigarettes, then Hank Williams Jr. got knocked off Monday Night Football for being politically incorrect, and now they're coming for the butter.

Denmark, on October 1, put a $1.29-per-pound tax on all foods that hit 2.3 percent in saturated fats. That's on top of a 25 percent surcharge imposed last year by Denmark's food police on all ice cream, candy, sugar, soft drinks and chocolate.

Taxing the air we breathe may be coming to Washington state. Yes, the insane taxing of every behavior is rising to a whole new level with the proposed "bike tax" in Washington.

Jon Stewart tries to figure out what hes allowed to put in his mouth as NY legislation proposes to criminalize soft drinks while de-criminalizing soft drugs...if all this proposed legislation goes through, it will kinda sorta be more acceptable to carry around a cupful of pot than a cupful of Coke.

Reuters is reporting a study by researchers that was published in Archives of Internal Medicine. The theory is that if pizza and pop were taxed by 18 percent, then people would reduce their consumption of them. What a novel idea? I must say that there is nothing in the article that talks about the government actually considering this at this time.

The Federal Reserve's pledge to stop buying mortgages by the end of March is sparking fears among home builders, mortgage investors and even some Fed officials that mortgage rates could rise and knock the fragile housing recovery off course.

New York City and the Bloomberg administration plan to enact a ban on the sale large sodas and other sugary drinks at movie theaters, restaurants, and even street vendors in an effort to fight obesity.

legislation that would give authorities the ability to identify the owners of pre-paid cellphones, which they say is long overdue "because for years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace." That new tracking ability would also consequently place some new requirements on cellphone carriers and people buying the phones -- specifically, anyone buying a pre-paid cellphone would be required to present identification before buying a phone