CDC Chief: Soda Tax Could Combat Obesity

(AP)

While Democrats await the results of bipartisan negotiations over health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee, one of the proposals put before the committee received a nod of approval from health officials today: taxing soda.

The committee -- the last congressional panel expected to produce its own recommendations for health care reform -- listened to arguments earlier this year both for and against imposing a three-cent tax on sodas as well as other sugary drinks, including energy and sports drinks like Gatorade.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a three-cent tax would generate $24 billion over the next four years, and proponents of the tax argued before the committee that it would lower consumption of sugary drinks and improve Americans' overall health.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Weight of the Nation" conference today, CDC chief Dr. Thomas Freiden said increasing the price of unhealthy foods "would be effective" at combating the nation's obesity problem, reports CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder.

Freiden said he was not endorsing the tax as a member of the administration but was "just presenting the science," according to Ambinder. He also said policies that would reduce the cost of healthy foods would effectively bring down obesity rates.

Obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion a year, double what it was nearly a decade ago, according to a study published Monday by the journal Health Affairs.

Given that evidence, the argument goes, a soda tax could plausibly pay for health care reform both by raising revenues and bringing down the medical expenses associated with obesity.

"It is extremely difficult in reality to make such a snapshot estimate of something so complicated as obesity," Ambinder notes. "This is one reason why researchers in the field tend to focus on suffering and disparities within populations, rather than aggregate cost."

Even though the growth rates of American obesity are leveling off overall, he points out, the rate is not slowing among African American women, Hispanics, Native Americans, or among poorer Americans.

Those opposed to the soda tax, however, are also emphasizing the impact it could have on poor Americans. The American Beverage Association, which strongly opposes the tax, told the Wall Street Journal the tax would hit poor Americans the hardest.

The association announced this month it has formed a coalition called Americans Against Food Taxes to oppose the soda tax, the Hill newspaper reported. Made up of 110 organizations opposed to raising taxes on food and beverages to pay for health reform, the group is running an advertisement that shows a family enjoying soda on a camping trip.

Given the current state of the economy, the ad says, "this is no time for Congress to be adding taxes on the simple pleasures we all enjoy."

[YodaSan2]

I'am a bigger person myself, but I am the way I'am BECAUSE of just the lack of exercise, not poor eating habits...mostly! I AGREE on the soda tax. Yay for taxes!

[Sonyaandfamily]

Why not put labels on the bottles like there are on packs of cigs. "Soda has no nutritional value" "Soda can lead to obisity"....

[lazypeople]

All these lazy smoking, fatty, sugar pumping comments reflect the single most important cause of healthcare costs in the world. Lung cancer, heart disease and diabetes are the cause of millions of dollars of health costs, and people who have no insurance or not enough insurance dump this into their system daily. People have this immature self-righteous ego that feels entitled to do whatever you want with yourself whenever you please, like a 5 year-old kid in a play-pen. If you cant pay for your lung cancer, you heart attack or your obesity and diabetes, chronic renal failure or liver transplant, stop cramming this junk down your throat. Taxes are a short-fix, but its the people who eat this junk that need to grow-up.

[jkorun]

This proposal is absurd. The problem with sugary drinks and obesity is one of excess consumption, not the item being consumed. How about an obesity tax on potatoes, rice, nachos, ice cream, cookies? It makes no sense whatsoever to single out sugary drinks. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

[formrusmcsgt]

I think lard-***** wil pay 3 more cents a serving, myself.

[noloyalisti]

Darn, if we tax bad things like soda to help protect the people's health, we might soon have speed limits, traffic signs, public police and fire services and other such socialist things.

[WingedWolfPsion]

This seems entirely fair to me. It's a very tiny amount of money, and if it would be put to use for medical care, I don't see any reason why not. This is not a necessity of life--it's a luxury item, and it's one that shouldn't be used to excess. An extra 3 cents a day, if you drank a soda every day, would come out to a whopping $10.80 per year. Woo hoo.

Reducing the cost of healthy food is something that NEEDS to happen. If healthy food doesn't cost less than junk food, people are going to eat the junk food instead. That's not the way it's supposed to work. There's something seriously wrong with the way things are going currently--manufacturing healthy foods should cost LESS, not more.

If the only way to turn that around is to make the junk food more expensive...well, that's what should be done, then. No one is going to starve because of it, and the poor folks deprived of their yummy sodas may complain, but they'll be better off too. This country's addiction to junk food has gone too far, if a tax of a mere 3 cents on a soda looks like it will break the bank.

[alien_view]

It's not about the sugar or the salt. It is about more money more power. Do you really think they care about skinny or fat...no it more about money, power and control over the public in every aspect they can come up with to control you and your life.

[Joe_NY_15]

by slownewsday_05 July 30, 2009 1:07 PM EDT

They deleted your comment about, the alternative to Obama, for some reason and my message responding...i guess any mention of dying is taboo at cbs

[Joe_NY_15]

Sorry, my bad..still there

[Joe_NY_15]

Does this cover all Soda or just sugary ones? because Obese people order big macs and a diet coke.....skinny people guzzle the sugar cokes....so as always, the Liberal establishment "knows better then you do about your own health" so they find new ways to tax the middle class....do you think wealthy people will be affected by a soda tax? NO, poor and middle class will have to pay.

Stop the madness !!! NOW (or send them a message in 2010)