Radio Commentary
July 31, 1997
See, I Told You So
pponents of the war on tobacco have long believed the crusade against smoking is just one part of a larger plan to dictate American behavior. We’ve warned that more curtailments of our freedoms are on the way—smoking was just the first step.
Well, we so-called "alarmists" saw some confirmation of our beliefs when Yale University researchers recently released a study. Yale’s Kerry Brownell alleged that Americans are being seduced by the county’s "toxic food environment." A high-fat, high-calorie—but low cost—diet is causing out-of-control obesity, according to the Yale group. Their solution to this problem? Taxes, of course. Brownell and his fellow authors recommended healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, be subsidized. Those evil, unhealthy foods should face new taxes, with the new revenue going to nutritional public information campaigns.
Does any of this sound familiar? The attorney general goon squad that was outrageously allowed to brutalize tobacco companies for producing a product consumers freely buy will perhaps launch a new campaign against junk food and soda. So don’t be surprised to see Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and her media-hungry colleagues at a press conference sometime soon, to announce their class-action suits against McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. It won’t be a surprise at all—scary as it sounds, the Yale study noted that Maine, the District of Columbia, and Chicago already levy higher taxes on soda and snacks than on other kinds of food and drink. The relentless desire of bureaucratic busybodies to controls our lives doesn’t seem to be abating.
