Thirsty for taxes? Try the stupid soda tax

It is a bizarre "syntax" error when President Obama takes time off his pressing issues to advocate for a "sin tax" on soda.

In the first place, there is no federal role in this. In the fantastic arrangement of a union of states, such issues are best left to state governments.  Second, it is crazy even for state governments to tax soda.  Implement a carbon tax first; that is a tax which should have been implemented years ago.

So, it is particularly insane for the feds to get into this because they are the people who are subsidizing growing corn, which then makes corn syrup extremely inexpensive that then further lowers the cost of soda.  Which means the simplest solution is to remove the subsidies for corn.  Right?

That is exactly what Katherine Mangu Ward argues here:

When corn subsidies (and accompanying tariffs on imported sugar) were instituted seven decades ago, it was a response to the terror of debt-ridden farmers worried about their livelihood. Since then, Iowa has been cheerfully mainlining government cash and voting for whoever promises to send more of it.

Subsidy packages to corn growers have been sweet;in recent years, with an average of about $5 billion annually since 1995, and a bumper crop of cash in 2005 clocking in at about $9.4 billion. Many of the acres of corn grown in the United States wouldn't be profitable if it weren't for federal subsidies (as chronicled in the excellent documentary King Corn, yet those billions keep the cheap corn piling up around our waists.

More on this corny topic here.