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Larry Summers: It’s time to tax carbon and treats

As for taxing sugary treats, he said, “Mark my words, this one will come.” Just as the sharp increase in tobacco taxes has led to “700,000 fewer deaths a year,” Summers believes that the “overwhelming evidence” that sugary snacks are a cause of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and perhaps premature death means that one day there will be a tax on these junk foods that will have the same impact that the tobacco tax has had. (For a look at the evidence on smoking and taxes, see the Congressional Budget Office’s report.)

Unfortunately for those who would like to use tax policy to discourage people from consuming junk food, for the moment, taxes on fatty products have a very short shelf life. The only country that has implemented such a tax, Denmark, will eliminate the tax in January — just over a year after introducing it.

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Government knows best.

Washington Nearsider on November 23, 2012 at 1:02 PM

Can we also tax print media on a per word basis for killing trees?

dczombie on November 23, 2012 at 1:04 PM

Leave us the hell alone. People will only take so much before all your “good intentions” unleash something you will very much regret.

darwin on November 23, 2012 at 1:07 PM

Hostess got outta the twinkie business just in time.

Dongemaharu on November 23, 2012 at 1:07 PM

Leave us the hell alone. People will only take so much before all your “good intentions” unleash something you will very much regret.

darwin on November 23, 2012 at 1:07 PM

You have a party that is in everyone’s business including toilets, lights, energy use and now food—-yet the republicans are the anti choice ones?

arnold ziffel on November 23, 2012 at 1:13 PM

Just as the sharp increase in tobacco taxes has led to “700,000 fewer deaths a year…

Really?

apostic on November 23, 2012 at 1:17 PM

DO IT!! PLEASE!!! I do not eat it so why would it bother me !/ typical retarded liberal voter.

Of course it does not matte because they on food stamps anyways.

watertown on November 23, 2012 at 1:18 PM

May he suffocate from said carbon.

Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:20 PM

You have a party that is in everyone’s business including toilets, lights, energy use and now food—-yet the republicans are the anti choice ones?

arnold ziffel on November 23, 2012 at 1:13 PM

The only choice the government supports is that of killing your child. Everything else? That’s up to HRM Barack Obama.

Washington Nearsider on November 23, 2012 at 1:21 PM

May he suffocate from said carbon.

Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:20 PM

I suppose most people have no idea that every living thing on the earth has a large amount of carbon in it. They also have no idea that virtually everything they use has carbon in it. Plastics, paper, clothes, synthetics, footballs, even iron is made into steel by adding carbon.

We, and every other living thing are carbon based life forms.

darwin on November 23, 2012 at 1:24 PM

Tax it all. There’s no limit. Tax the air we breathe. The air we exhale. Everything. Then whatever is left tax that. Call it the “leftover tax.” Hey, why haven’t they thought of taxing us on the taxes we pay. Sounds like a good idea. Could also maybe tax our children if we die early. Tax our kids on all the taxes they could have collected from us if we hadn’t died so young. Don’t call that the death tax, because they already have that. Call it the “death penalty” tax. Your children get penalized for you dying off early.

And our party, the GOP, just sits there afraid to be called names.

JellyToast on November 23, 2012 at 1:35 PM

It’s time for a 99% tax on intellectuals.

gwelf on November 23, 2012 at 1:36 PM

It’s time to tax Harvard University.

Realist on November 23, 2012 at 1:37 PM

How long before liberals realize this would hurt the poor both in terms of a dramatically increased cost of living and a loss of opportunity to get out of poverty? Or do they already know this and expect the underclass to be permanent?

gwelf on November 23, 2012 at 1:39 PM

darwin, indeed…but don’t let them know.

Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:49 PM

The only country that has implemented such a tax, Denmark, will eliminate the tax in January

Meaning Larry Summers is to the left of the European socialists.

theperfecteconomist on November 23, 2012 at 2:08 PM

Just as the sharp increase in tobacco taxes has led to “700,000 fewer deaths a year,”

Wow, this is a stunning statistic considering they were saying smoking led to 400,000 deaths per year total. They only got to that figure by counting every death from cancer as tobacco related if you had ever smoked, even 30 years prior to death.

I guess now them will blame sugar for everything with the same phony stats.

Rocks on November 23, 2012 at 2:13 PM

darwin, indeed…but don’t let them know.

Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:49 PM

Right, or they will tax bodies. Oh, wait:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/baby-carbon-tax-47121014

davidk on November 23, 2012 at 2:16 PM

Just as the sharp increase in tobacco taxes has led to “700,000 fewer deaths a year,”

Wow, this is a stunning statistic considering they were saying smoking led to 400,000 deaths per year total. They only got to that figure by counting every death from cancer as tobacco related if you had ever smoked, even 30 years prior to death.

I guess now them will blame sugar for everything with the same phony stats.

Rocks on November 23, 2012 at 2:13 PM

According to the reports, if the additional 27 states enacted comprehensive laws, more than 1 million adults would quit smoking and more than 400,000 youth would never start smoking. More than 690,000 lives would be saved and states would save nearly $1.2 billion over 5 years in costs to treat lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke.

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/report-stronger-anti-smoking-laws-could-save-millions-of-lives-and-billions-of-dollars

Hyperbole Lying from the left.

davidk on November 23, 2012 at 2:25 PM

Yeah, lets drive ANOTHER stake in the economy whilewe’re at it, it’s so prosperous it can handle it. PUTZ

clippermiami on November 23, 2012 at 2:45 PM

It’s time to tax Harvard University.

Realist on November 23, 2012 at 1:37 PM

One change to the tax code I would be in favor of is “no deductibility of donations to endowment funds that have more than $500 million in assets.”

cptacek on November 23, 2012 at 3:27 PM

Don’t you just love it…. during the campaign, it’s “Tax the rich one-percenters (except the ones that live in Hollyweird.) After the election, forget taxing the rich, we gotta tax sugar and carbon… you know, taxes the non-rich will notice.

These people are just a bunch of manipulative liars. Forget the fiscal cliff, they should be pushed off a real cliff.

Marxism is for dummies on November 23, 2012 at 3:55 PM