Regardless, it's unconstitutional and is an intolerable infringement on people's private lives. Uncle Sam has no business telling me what I can and can't eat.

A billion minutes ago was approximately 108 AD, well after Christ's death as well (75 years +/-).

And the numbers for the New Orleans do not take into account businesses, roadways, or public utilities that need rebuilding. A city is more than people aqnd their houses. That's the kind of rhetoric that gives a bad name to those who want to control government spending. You have to deduct the costs of rebuilding the things everyone uses (public works like roads, sewers, water, electric, telephone, etc.) at a minimum, then you have to look to investing in the business community at large so those people with homes have jobs to go to. Fat lot of good it does if they all return but can't earn a living because no one is open for business.

Invictus, Uncle Sam would be letting you eat it, it would just cost more. If that was offset by say cuts to the general sale tax, or income tax, would you still be against it?

I would still be against it. This is not a proper area for government to be involved in, period.

Who in their right mind would want to pay the government ( taxes ) to tell them what to do? Seriously, paying somebody to boss you around? That's got to be insane.

I see government not as someone else, but as an extension of myself. I see them not as a boss, but as a mentor.

The government is not "them." It is "us." This is a democracy after all. So I am okay with a tax on unhealthy food for what I think are a lot of good reasons, EVEN THOUGH I eat more than my fair share of unhealthy food.
And if a majority of my countrymen agree with me, the tax should be implemented.

That's what I believe about government. There is no great high moral law about "this is where government should end." It should end where people want it to.

Thucydides, a majority cannot rule on what is moral and what is wrong. The majority cannot vote to penalise, parasitise or destroy a minority and claim that it is therefore just. My personal liberty is a unalienable right, which I mustn't ever allow to be taken away.

The government is my mentor? My mentor for what exactly? How to eat? I understand my own body better than a bureaucrat in Washington or Whitehall. How to work? I understand my capabilities better than a politician or bureaucrat in Washington or Whitehall. How to manage my finances? You must be joking- look at the national finances! How to enjoy myself? I know what pleasures me better than a politician or bureaucrat in Washington or Whitehall.

Who can mentor me on how to live? Other people can tell me how they live, what they enjoy, what they regret. The government is an inhumane sum of human parts; as an individual, every MP, Senator and Congressman can tell me a great deal about themselves, and I can listen or not, but as a total, they know nothing, yet still wish to force everything. The person who can best advise me on my wishes is me myself.

Government by consensus is evil. It involves the destruction of countless minorities' interests to go along with the biggest minority. Government by any other means is impractical, so we hit a necessary evil. Let's minimise the scale of this evil, rather than asking it to force us to act as it sees fit.

To summarize TGM's post: Small government, ftw!
I hope you mean that in the local sense, rather than whatever the republicans mean when they say it.

@ Invictus:

Excise taxes are unconstitutional? They're explicitly authorised in the U.S. Constitution! I hope that my sarcastic post up above makes it clear that I'm against them. But they seem to be exactly the sort of tax envisioned by the constitution's framers. See the first line quoted here: http://www.tax-freedom.com/ta20001.htm

@ TGM:

>The government is an inhumane sum of human parts

Ha, I like that! Is that original?

>Government by consensus is evil.

Please don't water down ‘consensus’ to mean a mere majority vote! I know that ‘consensus’ doesn't always mean unanimous consent either, but … government by unanimous consent is the *only* authority that I recognise, and it's quite practical too, in small groups: http://www.consensus.net/

It's not because it's an excise tax per se, but because it's not a proper role for government. Taxing fat would be unconstitutional because it's an unwarranted government intrusion into our private lives.

Is nothing sacred? Can't I at least eat a cheeseburger without being nagged and taxed? It's exactly this sort of nanny state nonsense which destroys liberty. Uncle Sam needs the stay out of my kitchen just like he needs to stay out of my bedroom.

>Taxing fat would be unconstitutional because it's an unwarranted government intrusion into our private lives.

So it violates the 9th Amendment? All right, that's worth a try.

"Please don't water down ‘consensus’"

My mistake. That wouldn't have got past a good drafting process. I mean 'majority' there.

">The government is an inhumane sum of human parts

Ha, I like that! Is that original?"

Aye.

Maybe he means it exceeds the Commerce Clause power but that's absurd

How is it absurd? Use of the Commerce Clause already exceeds the intent of it. For one thing, it's used for federal regulation of INTER-state commerce.

At any rate, this is a meaningless discussion. I really doubt we'll actually reach a point where the federal government passes new taxes on fat. You think people are made about taxes now...

Because of Raich.

QED

Until there is a government that actually pretends to care about the people they govern taxes are a waste. They pay people (politicians) to look out for themselves so they can continue to "earn" a paycheck that is worth far more than the people they 'govern' Which is my whole problem. Politicians seem to have forgotten the fact that they are there to make laws for the people which are in the best interest of the people. Not to make sure they are reelected or have special consideration. The politicians feel they are above the people somehow. I am personally tired of it and the taxation without true representation of the people being taxed.

It wouldn't be taxing fat, it would be taxing food products that contain, say, saturated or trans fat.

Whats wrong with a pigouvian tax system? Unhealthy food is an extreme example, but wouldn't it be better if externalities were internalised by the tax system? So if a corporation is teaxed for polluting and then businesses also get the money being taxed. I think a factory should be allowed to pollute, but they should have to pay for the damages to the environment. You should be allowed to clog your arteries, but you should have a higher burden of the healthcare system.

Government already has a say in smoking, they tax it more, is that unacceptable? This isn't about making government bigger, its about changing government.

Income taxes create bad employment incentives, for example. My desire to push harder is dampened by a high marginal tax rate, so I would gladly embrace a lower income tax, and give corporations incentives not to saturate our food with grease at the same time. It seems like two birds with one stone.

Fat tax???
sure where are the fat people representatives?

Politician paranoia and hatred isn't a policy argument tailboarder, nor will it make anyone take you seriously.

I am not paranoid. Until you operate under the same circumstances as the average small business then I don't see a valid argument. I believe everyone should operate a business for 3 years and buy a house. once that happens then you have the right to complain...

My point is I do not care what you eat. I do not care what you do.
I do not care what you say. It is your right to say what you want. It is my right not to listen. I just think taxes are spent unwisely. I wish government had to operate under the same rules that business does.

I think tat $700billion is too much tax money to spend on corporate screw ups. I am sure none of that money came from my pocket...

Or maybe I should just shut my mouth because politicians actually know what is best for me. I should work so that over half of my wages go to whatever the politicians decide. They know best after all? I should go with their decisions? What I should eat say and do should also be their decision?

Pollution should, in my view, be treated as criminal damage, rather than be taxed.

"You should be allowed to clog your arteries, but you should have a higher burden of the healthcare system."

Exactly why you should have a private system that can charge higher insurance premiums for those who don't live healthily.

There should be two sets of rules.
One set for the people who support others financially should have less say...
My kids should decide how money earned by me and my wife is spent?

Thank you Ghost

It all goes back to my fundamental argument. If you screw up you should be responsible for you your choice.

Hahaha, you had a fundamental argument? I wasn't disagreeing with you, was I? I wasn't saying taxes should be raised, I never mentioned the stimulus and I certainly wouldn't say you should always do what any politician says. You sound hysterical, and I don't see what about... There is too much red tape for small businesses? Ok, I agree...

Ghost, I figured someone would say that. But since providing healthcare to all should be a moral imperative I wouldn't propose that myself. But fundamentally you agree that there should be repercussions? Using the tax system is just one way.

"But since providing healthcare to all should be a moral imperative I wouldn't propose that myself"

No it shouldn't. By what right should people demand healthcare. Why is that any different from any other preference?

Tailboarder:

How big is a billion?

A billion seconds ago, Callaghan was still PM.
A billion minutes ago, Trajan was the emperor of Rome.
A billion hours ago, Neanderthals were in their infancy
A billion days ago, Homo habilis, the predecessor to homo erectus, started using stones as cutting implements
A billion months ago, the Tyrannosaurus Rex roamed the earth.
A billion years ago, oxygen started to enter the atmosphere.
A billion times my age ago, there was no universe at all.