Here’s Ezra Klein’s response to the No Food Taxes coalition commercial aired in some regions during the Superbowl:
If you were watching the Superbowl in the DC area last night, one of the ads you saw came from the No Food Taxes coalition (which includes 7-Eleven, Alcoa, the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributers Association, American Airlines, McDonald’s, and many more). It showed a sensible-looking woman putting soda into her shopping cart and complaining that “some politicians” are “trying to control what we eat and drink with taxes.” Pulling into the checkout lane, a deep-voiced announcer intones, “government needs to trim its budget back, and leave our grocery budgets alone.” Watch the ad here.
It’s evidence of how seriously the sugared drink industry takes the threat of a soda tax. And, in the interest of balance — I did link to the ad — here’s David Leonhardt making the case for one. But a federal soda tax doesn’t currently exist and, if it did, it would reduce deficits, so it’s not really a great place to concentrate your energies if you want to reduce budget deficits and ensure a level-playing field in the snack foods aisle. That said, however, I’d like to propose common cause with my brothers and sisters in the Coca-Cola Company. Government does need to trim its budget back. And it probably should be doing less to influence us in the checkout lines. So let’s make this the year we finally end subsidies to the corn industry. Deal?
He has a good point. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it would be a bit ridiculous to subsidize the most expensive ingredient in soft drinks, and then tax consumption of the finished product in an effort to decrease demand.