Center for Consumer Freedom

Eating: A Taxing Endeavor?

Today, millions of Americans will scramble to send off last-minute tax forms to the Internal Revenue Service. In all likelihood, few will kick back after a mad dash to the post office and think: "Boy, I wish there were some way I could increase my tax burden." But that is exactly what a growing number of food activists have planned for us. If the food police have their way, something as basic as eating could carry a much heftier price tag.

• Invoking the mantra of "childhood obesity," Harvard's activist professor David Ludwig has called for governments to levy "a tax on fast food and soft drinks."

• Last year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals proposed an eight-cent per pound "sin" tax on all meat and fish.

• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) chief Michael Jacobson has declared: "We could envision taxes on butter, potato chips, whole milk, cheeses, [and] meat."

• The World Health Organization is urging nations to slap "fat taxes" on hog dogs, candy and other fun foods.

• Twinkie Tax inventor Kelly Brownell advocates "slapping high-fat, low-nutrition food with a substantial government 'sin' tax." His reasoning? Certain foods are too "convenient, accessible, good-tasting ... and cheap."

• The Texas Department of Health runs a CSPI-inspired campaign called "Soda Busters" that advises: "State and local governments should considering [sic] taxing soft drinks."

• California State Senator Deborah Ortiz introduced the "California Soda Tax Act," a measure that threatened to impose a nine-cent tax on every two-liter bottle of soda sold in the state.

• Legislators in Washington State proposed a bill that would slap extra taxes on all "carbonated beverages" and candy.

• Nebraska legislators introduced a measure to tax candy and soda, as well as chips, popcorn, pretzels, pastries, donuts, Danish, cakes, tortes, pies, tarts, bars, and cookies.

• Under the guise of trimming waistlines, New York State Senator Felix Ortiz proposed legislation to tax not only "fatty foods" but "movie tickets, video games and DVD rentals."

• And as we reported Monday, Canadians are bracing themselves for an eight percent sales tax on restaurant meals cheaper than four dollars -- all, of course, in the name of "childhood obesity."

These folks want it to feel like April 15 every time we pick up a fork or pop open a soda can. And for those who indulge in a frosty mug of celebratory suds after making the tax day deadline, beware: there's a cabal of neo-prohibitionists intent on "raising the cost of alcohol through increases in alcohol taxes."