-Caveat Lector-
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Date sent: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 18:15:17 -0700
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Release: Fat Tax
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Libertarian Party announcements list)
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: www.LP.org
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For release: December 8, 1999
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=======================================
Hide the ham: Health fanatics want to
slap a "fat tax" on your favorite foods
WASHINGTON, DC -- That scrumptious meal you had for
Thanksgiving -- and the festive feast you're probably planning for
Christmas -- may get hit with a "fat tax" if certain public health
fanatics get their way, the Libertarian Party warned today.
"Hide the ham, guard the gravy, and hold on to your hamburger:
The calorie cops are coming after us," said Steve Dasbach, the party's
national director. "If we don't stop them, the grease Gestapo will do
to fatty foods what they've already done to cigarettes."
In recent months, the "fat tax" -- a new federal tax that would
be levied against high-calorie and high-fat foods -- has been endorsed
by several organizations as a solution to a national "obesity
epidemic."
"Using language strikingly similar to the anti-tobacco jihad,
the Calorie KGB is demanding that the government launch a war against
fatty foods -- for our own good, of course," said Dasbach. "They want
to put a sin tax on food, while fattening the federal coffers."
How shrill has this crusade for a fat-free America become? Here
are some recent examples:
* At a conference in Washington, DC on "Obesity: The Public
Health Crisis," the president of the American Obesity Association (AOA)
demanded new "fat taxes" to fund anti-obesity educational programs.
Obesity is a "national emergency," said the AOA -- and a "ticking time
bomb in the health care system."
* The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) called
obesity "the second-leading cause of preventable death in the United
States after smoking," and said, "The time has come to develop a
national comprehensive strategy -- analogous to those already in place
for tobacco use."
* Kelly Brownell of Yale University said obesity is being
encouraged by a "toxic food environment" -- such as restaurants that
offer "high-calorie foods, heavily promoted and good tasting." Brownell
also said: "There is no difference to me between Joe Camel and Ronald
McDonald," and endorsed a "twinkie tax" on high-calorie food to
discourage overeating.
* The Center for Science in the Public Interest said a "fat
tax" is not enough, and called for a ban on "junk food" advertising,
and mandatory calorie labels on restaurant menus.
* A study by Policy Analysis, Inc. concluded that overweight
people cost employers $12.7 billion in sick time and additional
insurance coverage annually. Other studies claim that 300,000 Americans
die from being overweight each year.
What's next? Lawsuits against fast-food restaurants, suggested
New York Times columnist Daniel Akst. Such legal action could
compensate the "victims" of greasy hamburgers and french fries, he
said.
But such suggestions ignore the right of Americans to choose
what they want to eat -- and the right of restaurants to serve it, said
Dasbach.
"What you eat, and how much you eat, are matters of personal
preference and personal responsibility," he said. "Our eating habits
shouldn't be the government's business -- and bureaucrats shouldn't be
allowed to micromanage our menus or tax our twinkies in the name of
so-called public health. If revenue-hungry politicians want to put
something on a starvation diet, they can start with the federal
budget."
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