Another Liberal Tax Idea

Do you know the way to Santa Fe? Well billionaire Michael Bloomberg certainly does. Bloomberg, the ex-New York City mayor, who apparently thinks he knows what is best for the rest of us, just put over $1M into a proposed “soda tax” ballot measure in Santa Fe, the most liberal city in New Mexico.

Yes, that is the same Michael Bloomberg that banned sales of large sugary drinks while he was the mayor of NYC. Moreover his mission has not been limited to NYC and Santa Fe, as so far it has been reported that he spent $1.6M in Philadelphia and $18M in Oakland and San Francisco promoting “successful” soda tax initiatives. For whatever reason Mr. Bloomberg is on a crusade, trying to tax sugary drinks across the USA. If Liberalism is a religion, this soda tax is it’s new gospel, and this new gospel has already gathered additional converts in the liberal bastions of Berkeley, Ca., Boulder Co., and Cook County (Chicago), Il.

Back to Santa Fe . . . This tax would have put a 2 cents/ounce tax on sweetened beverages with the proceeds going to pre-schools. A six pack of Coke or Pepsi would have cost an additional $1.44 and this tax would have added $22 to a canister of lemonade mix!

Gloria Mendoza, a native of Santa Fe, told the city council that perhaps the elites should tax tofu instead of soda!

Laurie Martinez, a city resident said, “I just don’t believe that anybody has a right to tax what people consume.” She did not like the fact that by drinking sugary drinks she’d be paying for the schooling of other people’s children. “I have a 95 year old father and nobody helps me pay for his senior care.”

On May 2, 2017 with a record voter turnout in Santa Fe, this soda tax was thoroughly defeated with 58% voting , ‘No’!

Now to my central recurring question:                                                                                “Do liberal and most often Democratic policies hurt the poor the most?”         (To my prior readers note that this is a recurring theme . . . over and over! And to my new readers, pay attention as to how often this comes up in the future.)

Let’s address this recurrent question when discussing the soda tax.

In the Santa Fe issue, what is most interesting is that the middle/lower class neighborhoods (who stood to potentially benefit the most from the pre-school largesse) voted overwhelmingly against the measure. Why would they vote against this issue in significant numbers? Well to me the answer is intuitively obvious – they felt that for them the potential benefit was not worth it in terms of dollars and cents. If each ounce of a sugary drink is going to have increased cost, it is going to cost the poorer people more, relatively speaking, in terms of their income. They understand this – as being poor does not make one stupid!

In Philadelphia within 3 months of passing a soda tax of 1.5 cents per ounce, sales of Pepsi dropped 40%. (I think that I can hear the libs cheering and saying, “right on!”)

However what this led to was lay-offs of approximately 100 workers, and who do you think was more likely to get laid off?

You would be right if you answered the low /middle class workers.

It gets even more ridiculous in Seattle where liberal mayor, Ed Murray, decided to impose a 2cents/ounce soda tax . . . that is until his staff informed him that it was mostly poor kids who consumed sugary drinks! Oops!

So what does the liberal Democrat do then? . . . Keep in mind that there is no tax that a real Democrat doesn’t like. Mayor Murray then changed the tax to fall also on diet drinks, even though these drinks have no calories, and therefore do not contribute to obesity! Why on diet drinks, he was asked, “Because that is what privileged people drink.”                                                                 (It is well worth it to read that quote multiple times!)

But please note that what caused him to change the tax was the fact that this new tax was going to hurt the poor, the most!

So recognize that soda taxes are indeed regressive – i.e. they hurt the poor more, and so they actually fit very well with the real life consequences of liberalism.

And most of all, “Be careful as this new gospel will probably be coming soon to a liberal pulpit in your city or town!”