The idea of taxing soda is dead for now, but it will live on in the hearts of policy wonks spurred by things like this study from Travis A. Smith, Biing-Hwan Lin, and Jonq-Ying Lee for the US Department of Agriculutre’s Economic Research Service:
By assuming that 1 pound of body fat has about 3,500 calories, and assuming all else remains equal, the daily calorie reductions would translate into an average reduction of 3.8 pounds over a year for adults and 4.5 pounds over a year for children.
It’s a modest impact, but the point is that if you can come up with a revenue source whose non-revenue impacts are positive then these are good ways to fund government operations compared to things like the payroll tax.
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