Sin is in, said the Tax Foundation’s Patrick Fleenor in The Christian Science Monitor, or at least sin taxes are. Money-hungry “nanny-staters” in Congress are considering a proposal to add a tax to soft-drink sales, as a way to pay for health-care reform. That’s what these “busybodies” always do: sell their ruler-on-knuckle taxes as a way for a minority of sinners to compensate society for the cost of their sins. Instead, it’s an affront to freedom of choice.
The “sin tax” on health-damaging sugary drinks will probably die in Congress, said Dan Mitchell in Slate’s The Big Money, killing some $24 billion in revenue over four years, at 3 cents a pop. But when the beverage industry says the “food police” want to tell you what to eat and drink, remember, this group makes a fortune persuading “Americans to consume a lot of crap.”
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