Coca-Cola chief slams proposed S.F. soda tax

If San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks the negative reactions on SFGate and elsewhere to his soda tax proposal suggest the shape of things to come, wait until the chief of Coca-Cola Co. calls him a communist sympathizer. "I've never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink," CEO Muhtar Kent said last week.


"If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around," added Kent, who served time as a Coke executive in the former Evil Empire.
Such Looney Tunes rhetoric, even if it comes from the head of the world's "most valuable brand," according to a survey by Interbrand Corp., shouldn't come as much of a surprise these days.
Although it's a mystery as to how the Socialist Republic of Arkansas continues to survive with a soda tax its citizens have been paying since 1992. Not to mention the communist fiefdoms of Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia, which have similar taxes.
The idea is, or should be, a no-brainer. And the mayor should be applauded for walking the walk, rather than, as is custom, talking the talk about "prevention," "wellness," and helping to pay for health care reform. Which is more than can be said for Sacramento's leaders, who, as Chronicle reporter Heather Knight noted, "considered the idea in the past."
More recently, President Obama considered it "an idea we should be exploring." But he was just talking. "The president's plan does not incorporate a soda tax and we don't anticipate that the legislation that emerges from Congress will include it," said a White House spokesman.
Don't know how much help Newsom might get from that quarter should the hounds from beverage lobby hell descend.


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Soda is unhelathy. Tax the hell out of it.

Lower the prices of the healthier stuff.

This isn't telling people that they can't have it. If you can afford it, get it.

 

Who gives a fuck what these elitist CEO think? Seriously, time for a revolution.

 

He gets paid multi millions to defend/oversee the Coca Cola brand.

Is it really a suprise that he would oppose such a tax?