New York Governor Admits Defeat In Soda Tax Idea, Tries To Save Face By Saying It “Raised Awareness”

Freedom: 1
Big Government Nanny Staters: 0

New York Gov. David Paterson admitted Thursday one of his most talked-about tax proposals, an obesity tax on sugary drinks, is fizzling.
But he said it popped the right question.
In meeting with college students over his budget, Paterson told the young New Yorkers not worry about his soda tax because the Legislature won’t go for it. But he said it has served its purpose of raising awareness of childhood obesity.
His proposal would put an 18-percent tax on soda and other sugary drinks containing less than 70 percent fruit juice. His analysis showed it would raise a projected $1 billion in revenue over two years and reduce use of sugary drinks by 5 percent.

The whole “raising awareness” thing is such a canard. It’s the fall-back position for nanny staters whenever they feel threatened. They can’t come right out and say they’re working toward banning whatever it is they’re trying to ban (smoking, unhealthy food, etc.), but they can say they’re “raising awareness.” Because who’s going to oppose that? Who’s going to come out and say “I don’t like you telling everyone this stuff is unhealthy.”
But if you think about it, what kind of a simp needs some bureaucrat or politician telling them that Coke and McDonald’s are unhealthy? It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, though there are certainly enough hungry trial lawyers in the world who would love to sue McDonald’s and the like for not putting skull-and-crossbones labels on every hamburger and french fry package.