Here in New York City there’s a war going on outside no man is safe from. No not that war or those wars, The Soda Tax Wars.

Our mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is calling for a penny-per-ounce tax on soda to deal with budget cuts for health care and education.

Of course this is all under the guise of this new measure being for your own good, after all you and your kids are fat remember? Who can forget this charming anti soda ad?

The fact is the city is looking for money and health issues are a smokescreen for that. I’ve seen ads on TV with a Latino store owner talking about how this tax will hurt his Black, Latino and lower income customers in the Bronx. Check it out below.

To be fair I guess…here’s the Pro soda tax ad.

I have a few problems with this soda tax stuff. Firstly people who aren’t fat drink soda so you’re taxing the people who understand soda as a “sometimes food” as well as those horrible, evil fat people who would have sugar installed in an IV if they could.

The city needs money, they should just say so and up our taxes instead of doing clean sweeps on the subway for people walking between subway cars and soda taxes. They typically target Black, Brown and lower income communities with these pick pocket tactics.

No one needs soda to live so we could all do without it if we had to but people who live in cities, especially NYC, are less likely to be obese than our suburban counterparts anyway. Soda is cheaper than juice and water and more abundant in the hood but we don’t have to drink it.

There’s a war goin on outside, no man is safe from
You could run but you can’t hide forever
from these, streets, that we done took
You walkin witcha head down scared to look
You shook, cause ain’t no such things as halfway crooks
They never around when the beef cooks in my part of town
It’s similar to Vietnam…

One of my favorite groups off of one of my favorite albums The Infamous. One of the only albums you can listen to straight through. A classic, shout out to Queens!

Also other taxes will follow like hamburgers and chocolate bars taxes. They’re not going to stop at soda cause ain’t no such things as halfway crooks. New York’s Governor David A. Paterson has not dismissed those taxes so I think it’s a slippery slope. You can’t tax people into being healthy but I think the health issues are about fast hands in a 3 Card Monty game. It’s about the money. The health care this money will provide will be much needed but a soda war is unnecessary here.

Besides I want my 99¢ pizza deals to be as close to 99¢ as possible.

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