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Senate Studies Soda Tax

Tax on sugary drinks would help finance health care

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 12, 2009

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For years, cigarette smokers have paid a whopping "sin tax" each time they buy a pack of coffin nails. Now the Senate is savoring the notion of doing something similar with soft drinks and other sugary confections. Proceeds would help finance comprehensive health care.

The Senate Finace Committee has a session scheduled today to hear varying proposals from experts who've been looking for ways to help finance President Obama's proposed universal health care plan, expected to cost $1.2 trillion.

Among the leading proponents of the idea is the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a longtime crusader for less sugar, salt and other harmful food additives. It advocates a federal excise tax on sugary sodas as well as energy and sports drinks and sweetened tea drinks. Diet sodas would get a free ride.

Current thinking is that a tax of three cents per 12-ounce drink would generate about $24 billion over the next four years. That's a mere drop in the health-care bucket but CSPI founder Michael Jacobson says it's long overdue.

He calls soda "one of the most harmful products in the food supply" and thinks the tax would discourage consumers from slugging down so much of the stuff. Jacobson notes that sugary drinks contribute to obesity, diabetes and other modern scourges. He says at least a dozen states already tax sweetened drinks.

There's general agreement among researchers that liquid calories are a bigger health risk than those that come from solid foods. A study just last month found that sugary beverages had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake. A study in the journal Pediatrics in 2006 showed a direct correlation between weight gain in teenagers and the consumption of soda and other sugary drinks.

Also in 2006, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reviewed the most credible scientific nutrition studies conducted over the last 40 years and found that one-third of all carbohydrate calories in the American diet come from added sweeteners. Of that total, the study claims, beverages account for about half those calories.

Research reported at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in 2007 found that soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children.

The beverage industry, not surprisingly, isn't sweet on the idea. The American Beverage Association argues that a tax won't teach children how to have a healthy lifestyle and claims the tax would unfairly target lower-income Americans.

The idea may not go down well with voters either. New York recently backed off a proposal to levy an 18 percent tax on sugary drinks despite experts' ringing endorsement of the idea.

Yale obesity expert Kelly Brownell and New York Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden were both among the supporters of New York's proposed penny-per-ounce tax, which they argued could reduce consumption by more than ten percent and raise $1.2 billion a year in New York state alone.

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