Because we’re not smart enough to make our own decisions.
Via Free Beacon:
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) is seeking a national soda tax, an effort backed by leaders of the movement to ban smoking indoors and others who call carbonated beverages “toxic.”
DeLauro introduced the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax Act, also known as the “SWEET Act,” on Wednesday, which would impose a 1 cent excise tax per teaspoon of caloric sweetener in soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and sweet teas. […]
Larry Cohen, a social justice activist and one of the leaders behind banning smoking in bars and restaurants, endorsed the bill.
“Soda and sugary beverages are the new tobacco and the fight to reduce their marketing and consumption is the next great public health battle,” Cohen said. “I helped create the nation’s first multi-city no-smoking laws and advocated for years to increase the tax on tobacco.”
“I see a sugar-sweetened beverage tax as just as valuable and just as groundbreaking,” he said.
Cohen also blamed soda companies for creating a “nightmare of chronic diseases” for children, the poor, and minorities.