Soda lovers, beware: No sugarcoating ‘fat tax’
By Beth Teitell
Boston Herald Columnist
Thursday, June 15, 2006
So, the American Medical Association adjourned its annual meeting without passing the much-feared ‘‘fat tax” on soda. Akin to the ‘‘sin tax” that makes a pack of cigarettes cost as much as a pound of veal, the good doctors’ fat tax would put the fiscal screws to fans of sugared soft drinks.
But they decided to give the issue a pass. For now. And you know what that means. It’s time to start hoarding.
While we dodged a bullet, I heard the vote was a squeaker and the word around the AMA is that it’s only a matter of time before MDs take another swipe at soda lovers. Talk about doctors without borders! How about respecting ours?
Sure, a dainty 20 ounces of cola has as much sugar/corn syrup/everything ending in -ose as a pastry cart. So?
The AMA wants more time to study the issue. Well, here are some things to consider:
What if a thin person wants to make a can of soda part of a balanced diet? Nothing goes with salad like a nice Mountain Dew. Or two. Could a doctor’s note get him out of paying the tax at point of purchase? Can he file for a rebate with the IRS?
How would such a tax be enforced? Will a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and High Fructose Corn Syrup be created? I shudder to think of the pressure on that czar, particularly after the winter holidays, when the obesity alert level would hit ‘‘ghee.”
Is this antisugar sentiment a tacit endorsement of aspartame? As a Diet Coke junkie, I sure hope so.
I wonder where this health-tax fervor will lead. The doctors’ aim is to use the tax to fund obesity-education programs, but I worry that it will instead drive soda drinkers underground. I can just see twitchy cola addicts mixing illicit batches of Cherry Coke and Pepsi in their basements, all the while keeping an eye out for the modern-day Eliot Ness - the director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
‘‘Does this bathtub ginger ale taste OK to you?” ‘‘Cheese it, Louie! The cops!”
We’re on a slippery slope. As it is, even as they were voting against taxing soda, they passed a resolution urging the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the ‘‘generally recognized as safe” status that salt has been enjoying all these years.
My advice? While you’re hoarding soda, you might want to toss a couple of containers of Morton’s salt into your cart. It beats having to make a night run to Canada later.
