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Because They Don't Have The Guts To Ban It Outright
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Because it's gone so well elsewhere (NOTE: It hasn't), Philadelphia's caricature of a left-wing mayor Jim Kenney is proposing a soda tax to raise funds for things like universal pre-K education and other social programs. And like certain presidential candidates who make huge promises and have futile plans to raise the money to pay for them, Kenney isn't seeing that if the soda tax succeeds in one goal -- getting people to drink less soda -- it'll cause a shortfall in revenue for the programs. Which means raising taxes on everything else. Oh, wait, he wouldn't have a problem with that. And you could have predicted this one coming, considering that, besides his predecessor proposing a similar tax and failing, he's hired the same guy to be his health commissioner who brought New York that infamous, court-rejected large-soda tax a couple of years ago. I have no love for soda -- haven't had one in several years, and I know they're bad for you -- but these taxes just don't work and are really a way to disproportionately squeeze the poor and middle class to fund more programs meant primarily to provide politically connected folks with civil servant jobs. (Philadelphia Daily News)
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