Well, more and more people are coalescing around the idea that a soda tax is just not a good idea - including folks you might not expect.
And this past week, we read pieces by writers from seemingly polar opposite perspectives come together in agreement that lawmakers should nix any thoughts of pursuing a discriminatory and regressive tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
On Sunday, the Washington Post published an insightful piece titled: "Five Myths We Need to Can About Soda Taxes." As the title suggests, author Katherine Mangu-Ward uses reason to shoot holes in many of the tax advocates arguments. Ms. Mangu-Ward is senior editor at Reason magazine.
But earlier this week, the left-of-center digital site Slate actually ran two separate posts by their writers taking the tax to task. The first is by Daniel Engber, a senior editor, and takes an interesting turn on the "redistributing wealth" argument to make a point that a regressive soda tax would "redistribute pleasure" in a not-so-fair way.
A second piece in Slate was written the next day by national correspondent William Saletan. Mr. Saletan takes on the growing ambitions of the food police and the dangers of a slippery slope with these kinds of taxes. (Not to mention a defense of his editor’s fondness for Fresca.)
For those who read and follow the perspectives written by those on the left and the right, you know that it’s not every day that writers from Slate and Reason get to the same place. But if leading writers from these two outlets are able to drive Mack trucks through the arguments of the tax advocates (and their "science") and converge on the notion that a soda tax is just plain wrong-headed...maybe it’s time for lawmakers to give up on the idea. It’s time to move on.