First Your Smokes, Now Your Food

July 13, 2007

 

I hate to say I told you so but . . . I told you so. All you folks who hate cigarettes were so pleased when they came after the dreaded cancer sticks. They kept upping the tax and you kept cheering them on. I told you one day they'd come after your vices and now they have.

 

Just as predicted, it's the fat tax. That's right, a proposed tax on everything that tastes good. In England, Oxford researchers have determined they could cut heart and stroke deaths by 1.7 percent in Great Britain if they would just impose a 17.5 percent fat tax. This is a proposed tax on any and all fatty, sugary or salt food. Pretty much covers most anything we'd like to eat.

 

Now, don't act surprised. I told you it was coming. Why? Because we've allowed the government to impose so-called ‘sin taxes' on every little thing we find objectionable. (Actually, I don't think smoking is listed in the Bible as a sin but let's not quibble over a technicality) It's only natural that some do-gooders would come after the food we eat.

 

Of course, we've now allowed the government to tell restaurant owners they can't allow smoking in their own businesses. The next logical step is to ban fatty foods. Don't blame the government. Blame us. We allowed this to happen. We allowed the government to stick its nose in where it doesn't belong. We allowed the government to protect us from ourselves instead of slapping it back like the overzealous and insatiable beast it is.

 

So, what now? How do we keep the ever-encroaching government from lapping up every freedom we have left? We put our foot in the revolving door of higher and higher taxes and more government intrusion. We draw a line in the sand and not only prevent the government from taking away more of our God-given freedoms, we start to roll the clock back.

 

Governments on all levels – federal, state and local – enact thousands of new laws every year. The vast majority of them take away a little bit more of our freedom. Very few cede ground to us. It's time to just say no to bigger government and higher taxes.

 

But you have to be willing to apply that across the board. This business of giving approval to taxes on items you don't use or disapprove of is exactly how we got in this fix to start with. You have to understand that allowing the government to single out a certain product for punishment will only lead to more taxes. Eventually they'll get around to taxing something you're fond of.

 

You may have no worry over the proposed fat tax in England because it's over there. What's over there eventually comes over here. Once over here it spreads like kudzu. A cigarette tax becomes a fat tax becomes a water tax. We can all use the logic of the first tax to justify the latest. It's incumbent upon us all to recognize the long arm of the government and be ever mindful of the intention of our founding fathers. “ That government is best which governs least.” The quote is attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

 

Imagine for just a second how many laws that erode a little more of our freedom have been passed since Jefferson's day. The cumulative effect is a slow boil toward socialism. Keep all this in mind as you enjoy your Big Mac while watching the candidates debate the best way to socialize medicine. As long as you sit on the sidelines, it'll only get worse.