Reason Writers Around Town: Jacob Sullum on 'Public Health' Meddling in Newsday
Writing in Newsday, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum notes that both the cigarette tax hike President Obama signed shortly after taking office and the soda tax Democrats have proposed as a way of funding health insurance subsidies are highly regressive. For their supporters, however, these taxes are good not despite but because of their disproportionate impact on the poor, who will benefit if higher prices drive them to quit smoking or reduce their caloric intake. Those options are available to them even without the taxes, of course, but the fact that they continue sucking Marlboros and guzzling Mountain Dew shows they do not attach sufficient value to their own health. Hence the government must realign their incentives until they start making the right choices.