US Senate Proposes an Energy Drink Tax
That is the current American National Debt and to knock off 24 Billion of that over the next 4 years the Senate is thinking about taxing your energy drinks and sodas.
Of course they claim that this is in the name of helping stupid Americans make better food choices because they need big brother to tell them what they should or shouldn’t eat.
A few months ago we wrote about the State of New York trying to pass a similar bill. It, fortunately, got voted down, but it does make you think about how much money could eventually be tacked onto our beverage of choice. For instance, if your state passes a 10% tax and then the Feds pass a similar tax, you could be paying around 20% more… Crazy.
I personally get tired of the government controlling more and more parts of our lives. Doesn’t being American mean that we are free to make our own decisions concerning things like our health?
Besides I get sick of politicians trying to act so benevolent when all they are really trying to do is raise taxes in a creative way and make more money.
What do you think?
32 Comments
RECENTLY ADDED CAFFEINE
- Sunkist Ten68mg
- Fuel Energy Drink240mg
- Cojones Energy Shot125mg
- ChocoMallows100mg
- Eruption Effervescent Energy45mg
- Diabolo Loco Energy Drink160mg
I have to agree,…if it’s a fast selling product, then lets tax the crap out of and make an extra buck!!
Gotta love our government.
wtf? Tax our energy drinks because idiots who can’t do a simple budget spend money on crap they don’t need to. I know high school juniors who could plan a budget than the quacks right now. If this some how happens energy drinks will be made by people and sold like it was crack or some other drug.
damn the man!
around where I live the price of that stuff is going up anyway. in my opinion, energy drinks aren’t worth over $3 (not that that’s reasonable) and sodas should be like $1-$1.25. seeing an 8oz Red Bull under $2.50 is getting more and more rare. I wish they would at least not try to say that they’re helping Americans
People drink more and more of this crp, obesity is shooting up with all of the health issues that I get forced to pay for. I say – if you want to eat that stuff and McD’s and all the other stuff that the marketing people have foisted on you, then you should at least be paying for the national health care that we need. It’s like riding a motorcycle without a helmet and calling that “freedom” and then when they get in an accident without health insurance and come crying to the emergency room.
Wake up people – you are advertising suckers and you are costing me a lot of money.
Well, if we’re going to follow Mike’s train of thought, why not tax cigarettes other “vice” items even more than they are now. Eventually, the tax would be so high many would stop using and we’d all get healthier thus negating the need for the national healthcare and yadda yadda yadda. Taxing energy drinks may work just because they don’t have the political pull the products that cause true health problems have.
On a simpler note, this idea sucks!
The whole thing is messed up. It’s basically taxing everything in sight. We’re turning into a welfare state. I mean, the government in my already controls too much of our health care. There is too much government involvement in telling us what we should or shouldn’t do in our personal choices. I wouldn’t extend that to morals in general, because the need for government is obviously to protect against injustices like murder (should include abortion), rape, theft, etc. But if we keep handing over all responsibility for every aspect of our lives, then how can we not expect for the government to abuse that? It’s not even about who’s in office in any given year. It’s the fact that given enough opportunity, those in power will tend to take advantage of it for their own benefits. That’s why the balance of power is so important and why we have three *separate* branches- executive, legislative, and judicial- to keep each other in check! But since we have a representative government, we the people are largely to blame! We are handing over our freedom for a “bowl of soup.” To satisfy our immediate desires. That end result is gonna hurt…
I do not think energy drinks should be taxed. But it’s not so much the individual product as much as the political direction. Blah. I hate politics. I can’t even believe I took the time to write this. It all disgusts me, and yet it’s a necessary evil…
Agree w/ Gilly. The Democrats want to tax whatever they think we should not be consuming. You may just think that “Yeah, they should tax unhealthy food,” but you SHOULD be asking yourself…really? We aren’t talking about cigarettes here. We are talking about policy influenced by what the two anorexic women and the cspinet.org consider to be “UNHEALTHY!” People should have the right to consume what they want, when they want, and not have to pay extra.
I don’t know why you guys are complaining so much about this small tax considering we are one of the lowest taxed 1st world countries in the world. Personally I wouldn’t mind paying an extra 20% on a drink that I do not drink every day, and shouldn’t either, it is unhealthy as shit. The government may have done a bad job for getting our debt up so high but now they need to get rid of it and if this helps I say do it because this could end up helping us in the future.
Whoa Mike, I agree with you completely, but taxing energy drinks is only making it worse. As you mentioned YOU ARE PAYING for others poor choices. That is the problem. I should be able to spoke camels that I soaked in kerosene all day long until I get cancer, and you should be expected to spend a penny. Like wise Kerosene and cigs shouldn’t be taxed more to prevent me from doing it. The government is responsible for just a few thinks (or at least has the right to be responsible) National defense (internal and external), Interstate disputes forign affairs….oh right that’s why they think they should be involved in healthcare. Point is the Govermnet is spending so they can do more that they shouldn’t have a hand in at all. Then since they’re involved they need more money, but to justify that money they get involved more and how you have the first outright socialist president of America, though others have been socialists before. IMHO.
Also FYI, the taxes that were part of the reasons for the revoult were only a few percent. If somebody it’s stabed 20 times, and I get stabed once, I still have a reason to complain. But also in line with my previous post….EU is a socialist society, it can’t function without high taxes. So comparing a largely socialist region to a free market region wouldn’t be a fair comparison on what taxes are needed.
I disagree, they should never tax food nor drink items as even a professional nutritionist will tell you, it’s all good as long as your balancing it all out at the end of the day to your RDA.
Those agreeing are fools and government puppets. I train 5 days a week cycle regular 100 millers(160km) and enjoy coffee, beer and a LOAD of energy drinks to sustain my output on cycles.
By mine and other sport nutritionists agreement on what my requirements are for a week racing, is almost equivalent to your whole month! So taxing items because “normal lazy stupid people” just want to drink for no reason is idiotic at best. Even more so for those agreeing with such a stupid proposal without knowing anything about it.
I know I typed my posts very quickly and they were of draft quality. I was working and in the middle of other things when this was shown to me. In any case, why is a poster from an hour and a half later already been approved and mine are both still “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
Sorry to bother you all again, I didn’t know this was one of “those” kind of forums.
If you type S_o_cia_li_sm without the _ your post will be blocked.
Can Energyfiend.com say covering for the man?
The government should stay out of my soda choices
I encourage you all to try this for yourselves, make a post with the above mentioned word and it will be held, then post again with something simple like “HI I like Soda!” and it will go through.
Teh Government should stay out of all my choices. That’s what the Founding Fathers were all about. Socialism wasn’t their game!