Letter to Editor: Taxing Sugary Drinks Slippery Slope

The following is a letter to the editor in response to State Senator Jason Lewis's proposal on taxing sugary drinks:

Our so-called “progressive” Democrat State Senator Jason Lewis, is proposing a 2 cent per ounce tax on sweetened drinks which would raise the cost of a 12 ounce can of Coke by $0.24 and a two liter bottle by $1.34. Mr. Lewis believes that sugar is bad, and therefore that it is the business of government to discourage imbibing drinks that contain sugar by making it expensive to partake of such beverages. There is a term to describe this type of thinking, namely “social engineering.”

This sort of ”social engineering” by tax increase leads to a slippery slope that government should not be traveling upon. So-called “sin taxes” are not unprecedented, witness taxes on alcohol and tobacco, but in the past such taxes have been narrowly confined to substances with definitely harmful properties like tobacco. Proponents of taxing sugar assert that excessive consumption of sugar leads to obesity. However, there are a lot of things which we eat that taken to excess can lead to obesity. Should we be taxing bread, pasta, eggs, milk, cakes, pies, coffee with sugar, etc.? Where shall the line be drawn if we accept the idea that the government has the right to tax to discourage consumption of food products?

Once we start down this slippery slope who is to say we cannot tell fat people to change their behavior or be taxed? Their indulgences of fattening foods exerts costs on the entire health care system. Would Senator Lewis be in favor of a plan that allows private insurers to "discriminate" against fat people? He would likely deny it, but that's what he's doing by imposing a tax on sweet drinks (supposedly to change behavior.)

Despite the progressivists' claim to be champions of the poor, Senator Lewis’ sugar tax would fall disproportionately upon the poor who can least afford to pay such a tax.

What bothers me the most about Senator Lewis’ proposal is the elitist, Big Brother mentality from which it springs. Mr. Lewis thinks that he and his progressive ilk know better about what we should be consuming than we do, and therefore that they should have the right to use the coercive power of government to discourage people from freely deciding what they want to consume. This, I submit is a very dangerous precedent that must not be allowed to become acceptable. I urge residents to contact Senator Lewis and let him know that his social engineering tax scheme is unacceptable.

Mr. Lewis appears to have an appetite for finding creative ways to

extract taxes from our wallets under the guise that “Beacon Hill Knows Best.” Remember that our legislators, Senator Lewis and Representative Day, voted for $18 million dollar a year of self-serving pay raises despite a $462 million dollar state budget deficit. I hope people get the message loud and clear that when there isn’t enough money to go around Lewis and Day took care of themselves with a hefty raise but came to raid our wallets to make up the difference.

Anthony Conte

Winchester Republican

Town Committee