CDC Chief: Soda Tax Could Combat Obesity

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/27/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5192172.shtml

While Democrats await the results of bipartisan negotiations over
health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee, one of the
proposals put before the committee received a nod of approval from
health officials today: taxing soda.

The committee -- the last congressional panel expected to produce its
own recommendations for health care reform -- listened to arguments
earlier this year both for and against imposing a three-cent tax on
sodas as well as other sugary drinks, including energy and sports
drinks like Gatorade.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a three-cent tax would
generate $24 billion over the next four years, and proponents of the
tax argued before the committee that it would lower consumption of
sugary drinks and improve Americans' overall health.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Weight of the
Nation" conference today, CDC chief Dr. Thomas Freiden said increasing
the price of unhealthy foods "would be effective" at combating the
nation's obesity problem, reports CBS News chief political consultant
Marc Ambinder.

Freiden said he was not endorsing the tax as a member of the
administration but was "just presenting the science," according to
Ambinder. He also said policies that would reduce the cost of healthy
foods would effectively bring down obesity rates.

Obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion a year, double
what it was nearly a decade ago, according to a study published Monday
by the journal Health Affairs.

Given that evidence, the argument goes, a soda tax could plausibly pay
for health care reform both by raising revenues and bringing down the
medical expenses associated with obesity.

"It is extremely difficult in reality to make such a snapshot estimate
of something so complicated as obesity," Ambinder notes. "This is one
reason why researchers in the field tend to focus on suffering and
disparities within populations, rather than aggregate cost."

Even though the growth rates of American obesity are leveling off
overall, he points out, the rate is not slowing among African American
women, Hispanics, Native Americans, or among poorer Americans.

Those opposed to the soda tax, however, are also emphasizing the
impact it could have on poor Americans. The American Beverage
Association, which strongly opposes the tax, told the Wall Street
Journal the tax would hit poor Americans the hardest.

The association announced this month it has formed a coalition called
Americans Against Food Taxes to oppose the soda tax, the Hill
newspaper reported. Made up of 110 organizations opposed to raising
taxes on food and beverages to pay for health reform, the group is
running an advertisement that shows a family enjoying soda on a
camping trip.

Given the current state of the economy, the ad says, "this is no time
for Congress to be adding taxes on the simple pleasures we all enjoy."