FreedomWorks, Run By Former Beverage Industry Lobbyist Dick Armey, Launches Attack Against Soda Tax
FreedomWorks, Run By Former Beverage Industry Lobbyist Dick Armey, Launches Attack Against Soda Tax
Yesterday, Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks sent out an e-mail urging its followers to “help us defeat the national soda tax,” which “liberals” want to use to “pay for government-run health care.” From the e-mail:
Some liberals in Congress have proposed paying for government-run health care by hiking taxes on soft drinks and other beverages. Because the socialized health care schemes being considered will cost at least a trillion dollars, liberal politicians are looking for ways to pay for their schemes without upsetting too many folks. So they think that a tax on soft drinks is better than any other type of tax. They are wrong, and need to understand this message loud and clear: NO NEW TAXES!
As National Journal notes, the the beverage tax was “promoted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest” and just “one of many ideas presented to the Senate Finance Committee in a roundtable discussion.”
So why is Armey so interested in stopping the soda tax? Armey, the former Republican House Majority Leader, is now a lobbyist for DLA Piper. In 2008, DLA Piper represented Diageo, an international beverage business. Diageo paid DLA $720,000 that year for lobbying expenses, and Armey was one of the lobbyists working on Diageo’s case.
As ThinkProgress has reported in the past, Armey has consistently used his FreedomWorks organization to support the interests of his lobbying clients:
– Armey’s FreedomWorks is actively organizing against health care reform. Not coincidentally, Armey’s lobbying firm represents pharmaceutical companies, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, that oppose comparative effectiveness research in the health reform plan because such a program may cut into revenue for branded drugs.
– Armey’s lobbying firm represents the trade group for the life insurance industry. In return, FreedomWorks mobilizes its members for deregulated life insurance reform.
– Currently, FreedomWorks is focusing their energy activism on supporting the status quo reliance on fossil fuels. In addition to working for various domestic oil companies with a vested interest in opposing change, Armey’s lobbying firm represents Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE, on energy related issues such as maintaining the U.S.-UAE relationship where “U.S companies have played major roles in the development of UAE energy resources, which represent about 10 percent of global oil reserves.”
– In 2006, Armey’s lobbying firm represented the Senado de Republica (Mexican Senate) on “enhancing U.S.-Mexico relations,” and specifically on immigration policy. Curiously, during the same period, Armey’s Freedom Works stood out as one of the few right wing organizations to boldly support comprehensive immigration reform.
Last year, the Wall Street Journal also exposed FreedomWorks for building “amateur-looking” websites to promote the lobbying interests of Armey.
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If we had a tax on Republican stupidity, there would be no deficit!
May 15th, 2009 at 11:20 amDickhead Armey is a scumbag whore. Period.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:23 amStephen’s Coke Party Protest
Episode: #05066
Stephen is already twitching with excitement over his coke-fueled party to protest the soda tax. (04:49)
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/227615/may-13-2009/stephen-s-coke-party-protest
May 15th, 2009 at 11:29 amBut, if they tax soda, it will be more expensive for rednecks to keep their kids fat!
May 15th, 2009 at 11:33 amJust put a huge tax on cigarettes, and make it illegal to ship cigs from Indian reservations or from overseas.
Know who will get hit hardest? The Red States that grow the tobacco. I’d love to see a big tax on products containing high fructose corn syrup, too, since this addictive product has been used as the cheaper substitute for sugar.
If we’re going to reform healthcare, we need to eliminate the things that lead to the most disease, and smoking and obesity top the list.
PEACE
May 15th, 2009 at 11:35 amIt’s not a coincidence that guys who choose to be called Dick are just that, dickheads?
Methinks not.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:35 amSo few getting so rich by selling trash, poison and thin air to so many.
Why is lobbying still legal?
May 15th, 2009 at 11:42 amThere are no lows the evil liberals will not stoop to enact an oppressive $.01 an ounce on the sugary pop.
Studies will probably show at an undisclosed date that this will negatively affect the poor, in that they will have to burn calories flipping couch cushions frantically searching for the extra change–and will need even more soda to quench the thirst from the hard workout, paying $.02 more in soda tax than they originally expected to pay. It’s would be a vicious cycle hard to break.
/snark
May 15th, 2009 at 11:42 ammom, outlawing cigarettes would make the current drug war look like a haggle over the price of a used sofa
May 15th, 2009 at 11:44 amWhen the repuglicans were running the government in 2000, they started with a surplus. Then they decided to do a little Nation Building, but instead of raising taxes, they cut them. They also decided to rebuild both war torn areas with US tax payer money. And again, they insisted on cutting taxes. Now there’s a new sheriff in town with a whooping deficit twice that of the surplus the repuglicans had 8 years ago and has decided to make an effort to provide universal health care for all citizen. But instead of calling for more tax cuts, the sheriff is looking to tax those items that are the major contributors to the serious health issues that plague Americans. When are Americans gonna stop being stupid? Armey’s betting that will never happens.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:47 amkaty,
LOL on Cobert. “Can your urine come out carbonated? I have a friend who wants to know.”
p.s.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:51 amDoesn’t that picture of Army look like Bozo the Clown out of drag?
“NO NEW TAXES™”, eh? Yeah, run with that one, Dick — that tired mantra worked so well for you and your fellow members of the Republic Fascist party the last time you used it as a slogan (although I notice you left off the “READ MY LIPS” preface this time…).
May 15th, 2009 at 11:51 amDick army looks like he should be holding a can of soda in that picture.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:53 amFirst, I don’t think you can buy soda with food stamps so the truly needy probably don’t buy much of it. Second, what is the down side to our children drinking less soda? Less caffeinated sodas for children might cut down on the need for Ritalin in children.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:56 amThird, municipalities all over the country raised sales taxes like crazy during the Bush regime in blue states where federal funds weren’t flowing back like they do to red states. Where was Dickless Armey then?
Dick Armey should be waterboarded with cans of soda.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:57 amSo what if a national health care plan costs trillions?
How many trillions are/have been wasted in unjustified and illegal wars? How many trillions for tax cuts to the filthy rich?
I’d rather spend money on health care than those other two items. Some 50 MILLION Americans currently have NO health care coverage, and probably and equal number are underinsured-THAT’S obscene.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pmVanWrinkle-FLAGGED!
May 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pmJust a little off the topic but notice how the “thinkers” have mulled ideas on taxing damn near everything EXCEPT liquor.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:05 pmMom- you may recall an additional federal tax was just put on cigarettes, on top of the already quite high existing federal and state taxes. They increased by another .60 pack/$6.00 per carton. I’m a smoker, but certainly didn’t object because the revenue was going to be used to fund children’s health care.
On the other hand, these consumer taxes raise insignificant amounts of revenue when you consider the just-approved $97 billion dollars to continue our two wars, or the billions of dollars which are escaping taxation by being put into offshore banks. Only two examples. There are better ways to fund universal healthcare, single-payer being the most direct and logical. But that won’t happen until the health insurance and pharma companies no longer have power to write their own laws, and that means campaign reform…public financing only. Or nationalize them, which would be my preference and I’ve been advocating for at least 30 years.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:06 pmThere are already big taxes on liquor. But there should be.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pmDick Armey?
I’d rather have a Vagina Coastguard if ya don’t mind…
May 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pmHeh. Here’s David Shuster on the teabaggers and Dick Armey.
:-D
May 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pmUniversal health care is a “scheme”??
Well, I guess Armey is correct that government-run health care could be a bad thing. Good thing that is not what is actually being proposed!
My God … The GOP will politicize absolutely ANTYTHING.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pmHigh fructose & sugar content are making America diabetic & obese.
Corporate greed feeds our kids shit while sticking profits offshore.
Cheerios will lower your cholesterol 10% in a month! Bullshit! (But don’t forget to put lots of sugar on it, kids.)
This dynamic affects health care costs. It’s all related.
True reform in America cannot happen until corporate greed is reigned in & their taxes fall into the US Treasury.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:19 pmGood point, Uncle Ho. Thing is, we’ll never spend trillions on health care in the long-term with the right preventive care. Our health care system is already a two trillion-a-year hassle that hands those who truly need care nothing more than a lottery ticket.
May 15th, 2009 at 12:25 pmPresident Obama ruled out single-payer health care because he doesn’t want to tamper much with 1/6 of our economy. My response is, why does picking up a paycheck in America all too often have to be dependent upon human suffering?
May 15th, 2009 at 12:28 pmsoda tax?
thats one of the most ridiculous things i’ve ever heard.
if that is serious, and i hope its not, i’m completely against it.
i would love to see healthcare, but this is not the way to get it. we spend more money then almost the rest of the world combined on our military, there is more than enough money to have better health care without raising taxes or creating new ones by simply prioritizing giving people medicine over dropping bombs on them.
a soda tax would be stupid… its not the governments place to just tax anything they deem to be “bad”
May 15th, 2009 at 12:59 pmya know, I drink a pretty decent amount of soda – probably more than what would be considered “healthy” by most; hell, i’m sipping on a Dr. Pepper right now – but I enjoy it, so I make the same kind of choice that anyone else does when it comes to personal liberties, indulgences & at times, excesses. which is why I, for one, am perfectly willing to pay an extra tax of a few cents per can, if it can help put money into public healthcare & fund all the other important initiatives being discussed here. unlike these slimy free-market fetishists, I happen to believe it IS patriotic to pay your taxes – because that’s how everything we love & need in this country gets paid for. so my response to the Dick Armeys of the world would simply be: drink up, pay up, shut up…
May 15th, 2009 at 1:01 pmDoodlebug Shayne Says
May 15th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
There are already big taxes on liquor. But there should be.
___________________________________________________________
There are already big taxes on tobacco, too. And there should be. But that’s not going to stop the deciders from deciding tobacco needs to be taxed more.
Personally, I think if we’re going to tax “sins”, we should tax them all. If we legalized prostitution and marijuana, and taxed the hell out of both of them, this could go toward paying for health care, too. And as long as we’re at it, let’s go for internet porn as well.
But all this discussion is based on the false idea that all of the “at least a trillion dollars” needed to effect health insurance reform is going to come from taxpayers.
Right now, scrapping the entire system as we know it today in favor of a single-payer system isn’t on the table. What IS on the table is a public health plan (along the lines of Medicare) that would compete with private health plans. If enough people opt for this plan, the amount of money involved could indeed be quite high. But the lion’s share of it would be paid for by citizens who choose the plan, and by employers who choose this plan for their employees. Neither of them would complain much, because the public plan would provide coverage at less cost than what they’re paying now. The taxpayer would have to subsidize coverage for those who need can’t afford it — but it’s tough to believe that slice would exceed a trillion dollars (and the taxpayer is already paying through the nose for the non-insured who wait until they’re sick enough to require expensive emergency care).
Dick Armey is just justifying his fat paycheck by creating an imaginary emergency. So what else is new?
May 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pmmk3872 Says
May 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Universal health care is a “scheme”??
_____________________________________________________________
I’m sure you remember back when the right bashed Al Gore for using the term “scheme” to describe the Republican plan for privatizing Social Security.
But IOKIYAR using the term, I guess…
May 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pmArmey’s whole career has been about helping the already fortunate at the expense of the poor. Now he’s on the board of directors of Rent-A-Center, which is no friend of the poor either with their policies.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pmOn top of the soda tax,let’s add a drive up window tax of a $1
May 15th, 2009 at 2:58 pmper use. That way we can get people exercising, and reduce the air pollution and excess gas consumption caused by the running engines.
How did the world ever function without carbonated sugar water? Wow! I guess drinking water with your meal is really going back to the Stone Age, eh?
/snark
May 15th, 2009 at 3:35 pmI drink almost nothing but soda, and I have no problems with a soda-tax.
And Armey needs to lay off whatever it is that causes his histrionics, hissy fits are so unbecoming the older one gets.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:41 pm