Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What a crock

New York Gov. David Paterson is fighting obesity and budget deficits in a proposal for an 18 percent tax on soda and other sugary drinks.

The idea is to discourage consumption of high-caloric beverages and to raise $404 million in fiscal year 2009-2010 toward the state's multibillion dollar budget gap.


What's next, a tax on potato chips? I call foul on it being for health reasons; I think it's just a phony excuse to slap another tax on people. If your going to rob someone by jacking up their taxes, at least admit that you're screwing them; don't make up a bunch of bullshit that you're doing it for their own good.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
- Aesop


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Freezing air blanketed much of the nation Tuesday, making roads hazardous in Texas and slowing recovery from ice storm blackouts in New England, in the second day of a bitter cold wave.

Temperatures were 20 below zero and lower across the northern Plains, and a band of snow, freezing rain and sleet stretched from Kansas and Nebraska along the Ohio Valley to Maine.

Dozens of schools closed in Kentucky and Tennessee because of slippery roads and salt truck crews started working before dawn. Up to a half-foot of snow had fallen in parts of Kentucky.

"It's pretty treacherous," said Jodi Shacklette, a Kentucky State Police dispatcher in Elizabethtown. "We're working wrecks just left and right."

Authorities in Lincoln, Neb., blamed some 20 accidents on the weather.


Al Gore, your phone is ringing...

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Feeling sort of moody about music today. Some mellow, some not so much.

"Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
"Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran
"Saginaw, Michigan" by Lefty Frizzell
"A Fistful of Dollars" from the soundtrack
"The Four Seasons: Spring" by Vivaldi
"Let It Ride" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
"Bullshitter's Lament" by Blues Traveler
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics
"Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin
"Hellraiser" by Lita Ford

10 comments:

GUYK said...

The irony is that 'sin' taxes are self defeating. What the 'guvmit' gains on the taxes they more than lose on health care because without the fat food, booze, and tobacco people live longer and need more health care.

James Higham said...

Had to laugh - can you imagine, Bob, them saying, "Now folks, where going to screw you within an ounce of your life. Will you still vote for me?"

Wish they would though. Hey.

Kenny said...

As long as they don't tax green jello Utah should be okay. sin/fat tax is wrong on so many levels.

Anonymous said...

I too am tired of my many sins and the taxes that go with it. I guess I am going to have to break down and eat healthy. On second thought, no....

BobG said...

GuyK: And if everyone quit buying the stuff, then they would just find something else to slap a tax on.

James: Any time a politician talks to the media I just assume it's BOHICA time, no warning necessary.

Kenny: Here in Utah they're more worried someone might drink a beer than whether they drink a sixpack of soda every day.

Skipper: If we all started eating healthy, they would start taxing healthy food.

terri said...

I think that cigarettes have proven that you can raise prices all you want, but you still can't force people to make healthy choices. When I'm in need of a diet coke, I'll pay whatever the cost.

Thud said...

I love all fattening foods...yet I'm not fat...Ronald McDonald has not yet forced me into obesity...why?...because i know whats best for me and how to say no...I don't need govt interference.

the pistolero said...

I love Lefty Frizzell, a great singer who died too young. "Long Black Veil" is another of my favorites from him.

Anonymous said...

Apparently people cant decide what to eat for themselves? Taxing soda like that is NUTS. What about SKINNY people that want a sugary drink?

BobG said...

terri: Seems like people should be allowed choices; the only reason they're taxing them is for money, it has nothing to do with health.

Thud: It's not the government's concern what we eat or drink, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

Pistolero: Not too many young people like yourself even know who he was.

Meleah: It's not about health, it's just another excuse to hit people with more taxes.