10-20-16 Preckwinkle Soda Pop tax outrage

Raising taxes is never about healthy living

Southwest News-Herald Oct. 20, 2016

By Ray Hanania

I’ve been drinking Coke and Diet Coke now for more than 40years, so I kind of take offense when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says she’s concerned about the public health and wants to impose a draconian sales tax hike on soft drinks.

What is troubling to me is how politicians slam things like smoking cigarettes, car pollution, drinking alcohol, and drinking pop because it’s “not healthy.”

If smoking cigarettes are so bad, why not ban them? Why not ban alcohol, if it is so bad for our health? Why not ban all soft drinks, too, or limit how far we can drive in our cars?

It’s not about our health and never was. It is about money.Your money. And the special word they use to refer to “your money” is “taxes”.They need your taxes and they think that they can waste our taxes by pitting tax hikes against “caring” for our health. ...

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This is Ray Hanania’s column commentary Podcast … Hanania’s columns are published each week in newspapers throughout the United States and in the Middle East.

Topic: Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle wants to impose an outrageous tax on soda pop sales to fill the gaps in her bloated, waste-filled budget of $4.4 billion. Oct. 20, 2016

He writes on American politics and life in Chicagoland every week in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, the Reporter Newspapers, NewsAmericaNetwork.com, and IllinoisNewsNetwork.com.

Hanania also writes a weekly column every Thursday for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. And, writes news and features for his website at TheArabDailyNews.com and TheDailyHookah.com.

An award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter named Best Ethnic Columnist by the New America Media, and recipient of the Sigma Delta Chi award for writing, Hanania is of Palestinian Arab heritage.  

You can reach him and share your opinions and thoughts by emailing him at rghanania@gmail.com. All his columns are archived at RayHanania.com.

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(An American Palestinian Arab, Hanania writes a weekly column for the Arab News at www.ArabNews.com. He also writes each week for several mainstream American newspapers on American politics and life in Chicagoland. Reach him at rghanania@gmail.com.)