Chicago imposed a $0.01 per Oz tax on sodas and sugary drinks.
It was supposed to encourage healthy living.
Of course Chicago would focus on something like that and not its homicide rate. The leading cause of death of young men in Chicago is not high fructose corn syrup but high velocity lead.
After much backlash, Chicago is now repealing the tax realizing that it hurts working class people and the poor the hardest.
Michael Bloomberg, on his never ending quest to micromanage everyone’s life in America, spent $3 Million pushing for this tax. Previously his big soda ban was shot down in NYC.
This is great news. Bloomberg’s grip is slipping. If he can’t win on a sugar tax in one of America’s most progressive cities, he can’t win on even more contentious issues elsewhere.
He’s overextended his grasp. People are no longer willing to put up with his overbearing nannying.
Maybe he’ll learn his lesson and just retire, but I don’t think his personality will let him.
I’m happy to watch the man bankrupt himself tiling at political windmills, fighting the not-good fight to remove all joy, happiness, and personal responsibility from people.
I will say that from what I’ve read, it had less to do w/ Bloomberg’s influence than the outrageous tax levels the city/county already face. Prickwinkle swapped talking points from ‘health’ to ‘revenue’ and started threatening that salaries/employees would have to be cut.
The reality is that they already spent the $200m ‘proposed’ from the tax when they hadn’t even generated even a fraction of that and probably are in the red when you take into account the amount lost from people buying groceries elsewhere.
Now she’s going after bicycles. Look for a $100 tax for a bike and more fines/fees to do so.
You are right. I guess I wasn’t clear enough in my thesis. Bloomberg pushed this. It failed miserably. The next time Bloomberg comes calling with a nanny idea, other people will think twice. Sure, the true believers will always go ahead with stuff like this, but Bloomberg with become toxic to the moderates.
I’ve been in Chicago a few times during this controversy and I have noticed that all of the pro-tax, highly manipulative TV commercials were paid for by Bloomberg. Boycotting ordering a Diet Coke whenever I feel like it has been rough here but I stocked up on pop before we left Indiana.
I did that with Fireworks. If I had to do that with Coke, I’d lose my mind.
“I’m happy to watch the man bankrupt himself til[t]ing at political windmills….”
Forbes says, as of 10-13-17, Michael Bloomberg has a net worth of $47.5B and has already donated to his pet causes of gun control and climate change to the tune of $4B. He could write a check for $250M a year or more funding gun control hacks and it would hardly ping his P&L.
This is the problem; money buys narrative and he’s hardly going to go into financial jeopardy even if he takes a more aggressive stance.