Friday, June 1, 2012

Minton On Bloomberg

Michelle Minton of CEI discusses how, "New York City Mayor Michael 'Nanny' Bloomberg Wants To Ban Super-Sized Soda".

From her post:
While the causes of the perceived obesity crisis are too complex to delve into in a blog post, it is pretty obvious that this super-sized soda ban will do nothing. First of all, there’s nothing in this proposal to prevent customers from purchasing multiple bottles of 16 ounce drinks. Furthermore, sweetened drinks in bottles greater than 16 ounces will still be available in grocery and convenience stores.
So why is he doing this? Perhaps Mr. Bloomberg is really stretched for a way to spend the $15.5 million in stimulus money? As the Heritage Foundation reported last October, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provided $230 million for 25 communities’ obesity campaigns. And here I thought stimulus money was meant to help struggling communities and to decrease unemployment — turns out it was really meant to make commercial that portray American companies (aka employers) as selling carbonated fat-in-a-can.
Perhaps this is just an attempt to look like a do-something-mayor in the lead up to the City’s 2013 election. Or perhaps he really wants to reduce the rate of obesity. Whatever his reasons, this type of overreach demonstrates that he either has a lack of understanding of how public policy can affect public health, a disregard for individual choice, and/or zero knowledge or complete disregard for how economies function...
(Read the full text of "New York City Mayor Michael 'Nanny' Bloomberg Wants To Ban Super-Sized Soda".)

Some of the worst statists are those who wish to "help" you by reducing your freedom for your own good.