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In a newly-released interview with Men's Health magazine, President Obama has said he is open to the idea of a tax on soda and other sugary drinks, which some have pointed to as a way to help pay for health care reform.

"I actually think it’s an idea that we should be exploring,” Obama said in the interview. “There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda."

"Every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else," he continued. "Obviously it's not the only factor, but it is a major factor."

The president went on to note that there is resistance in Congress to "sin taxes" such as this.

"People's attitude is that they don't necessarily want Big Brother telling them what to eat or drink, and I understand that," he said. "It is true, though, that if you wanted to make a big impact on people's health in this country, reducing things like soda consumption would be helpful."

Michael Steel, spokesman for House minority Leader John Boehner, email reporters in response to the news arguing that "such a tax would violate the President’s campaign pledge that no one making under $250,000 would pay higher taxes, since – according to the Congressional Research Service – 96.4 percent of it would be paid for by Americans making less than that."

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If lawmakers want to tax sugary beverages to help curb the nation's obesity problem, they could be well served by studying anti-tobacco campaigns, a group of researchers is suggesting.

Taxes should be combined with other aggressive policy interventions, as well as community outreach programs, to bring down obesity rates by changing what people eat, according to a new report from the Urban Institute and the University of Virginia. Just as the popularity of smoking declined dramatically over decades, the researchers say, using policy to bring down obesity rates could be effective but would take a generation of work.

Policies suggested in the report "Reducing Obesity: Policy Strategies from the Tobacco Wars" include:

-- Imposing excise or sales taxes on fattening food of little nutritional value.

-- Putting graphic, simple labels on the front of packaged foods showing their nutritional value in a form that consumers can easily understand and use

-- Requiring restaurant chains to put simple nutritional information on the menu next to each listed item

-- Banning advertising and limiting the marketing of fattening food

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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.

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The Senate Finance Committee today is hearing proposals on how to pay for President Obama's proposed universal health care plan, which is expected to cost more than $1 trillion. Among the proposals, as Consumer Affairs reports: A three-cent tax on sodas as well as other sugary drinks, including energy and sports drinks like Gatorade. Diet sodas would be exempt.

"While many factors promote weight gain, soft drinks are the only food or beverage that has been shown to increase the risk of overweight and obesity, which, in turn, increase the risk of diabetes, stroke, and many other health problems," Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is pushing the idea, said in his testimony. "Soft drinks are nutritionally worthless…[and] are directly related to weight gain, partly because beverages are more conducive to weight gain than solid foods."

According to Jacobson, "Beverage companies market more than 14 billion gallons of calorie-laden soft drinks annually. That is equivalent to about 506 12-oz. servings per year, or 1.4 servings per day, for every man, woman, and child."

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