CSPI Calls on Congress to Impose Soft Drink Tax as Part of Health Care Reform

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has written to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) requesting that the federal government “levy a tax on non-diet soft drinks to recoup some of the costs incurred by the government from the consumption of these drinks, as well as to reduce consumption.”

Others signing the June 17, 2009, letter are the American Public Health Association, Consumers Union, Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, Kelly Brownell of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, and Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health. Claiming that “soft drinks are the only food or beverage shown to have a direct link to obesity,” CSPI contends that “a new federal excise tax of one penny per 12-ounce soda could generate more than $1.5 billion per year” and that even higher taxes “could raise roughly $16 billion a year— an amount that would make a serious down payment on a comprehensive health care reform bill.” See CSPI Press Release, June 17, 2009.