In A Struggling Economy, Tax Advocates Bark Up The Wrong Tree
The nation’s economy continues to struggle. Many businesses are finding it hard to borrow money from banks that would enable them to begin hiring people again. Consumers remain cautious about spending.
But tax fever continues to run high among career tax advocates, and soda taxes is their latest bandwagon. These advocates are not concerned about placing new burdens on consumers and businesses at a time when they can least afford them. To tax advocates, there’s no such thing as a bad tax.
The fact that tax advocates are ramping up their calls for more food and beverage taxes demonstrates how out of touch these individuals are with the concerns of most people.
One of the most extreme examples I came across was a guest editorial published last week by the San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, Calif. from Harold Goldstein, executive director of the Davis-based California Center for Public Health Advocacy. Goldstein supports a state bill to levy a penny tax on every teaspoon of added sugar or other caloric sweeteners in commercial beverages to fund childhood obesity prevention and other children’s health programs.
Goldstein claims new research supports the rationale of the traditional “Twinkie tax,” which holds that taxing certain products will encourage healthier habits. This is a discussion unto itself. The nation’s biggest concern, however, is the economy, and the impact of taxes on jobs is less debatable than the role taxes play on consumer behavior. And nowhere is this evidenced more dramatically than in the state where Goldstein’s organization is based: California.
With unemployment above 12 percent, California has one of the worst economies in the nation. The governor declared a fiscal emergency in January that includes possible reductions in services and pay cuts for state workers.
Tax advocates like Goldstein either don’t make any connection between unemployment and taxes, or they don’t care about the economic consequences that taxes create. California’s taxes have driven businesses out of the state, eroding tax revenues paid by businesses and their employees.
Fixing the nation’s economy should be the top priority of our nation’s policymakers. Higher taxes will not help fix the economy.
If you’re interested in learning more about what you as an individual can do to fight food and beverage taxes, go to http://www.nofoodtaxes.com/
Tags: soda tax vending industry higher taxes unemployment twi
March 18th, 2010 at 7:41 am
One tax after another seems to be the latest trend to try and save the career politician. How soon they have forgotten who has elected them into office and who puts bread on their tables through the taxes they have created. Shame on you Mr. Self-Serving Tax Advocate who are too many in number with little or no interest in the common people.
It seems as though little has changed from the time when many peoples mass exodus from europe to the new world in hopes of a chance at a better life and a taste of freedom. Tired of the “surf and lord” system or of being persecuted for their own interests or beliefs, immigrants flowed to this country for a chance at a new and better life. What went wrong? That false freedom has been smashed within less than 235 years.
Everyday new laws or ammendments to our rights and our freedoms are being passed by the “lords” reducing the common people to little more than the sharecroppers of our ancestors. To what benefit of the common people? Little or none seems to be the general concensus.
It is apparent that abusive lawmaking and overtaxation, with little interest to the people, are at play again. The gap between the common people and those who “rule” over them widens daily. History does indeed repeat itself. Look how the last battle for freedom ended. Down with the king!
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:06 pm
AMEN Brother Elliot