The Huffington Post claims that it has found a way to reduce obesity — raise taxes on sugar, salt, and fat. “A simple tax could be a big tool in ending America’s obesity epidemic. Adding a 20-percent tax on sugar would cut Americans’ total caloric intake by 18 percent and reduce sugar consumption by more than 16 percent, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Taxes on fat and salt would help, too, cutting total calories by an estimated 19 percent and 10 percent, respectively, according to the study.”

The title of the article is “There’s An Easy Way To Fight Obesity, But Conservatives Will HATE It.”

These people are insane, but you already knew that.

If taxing something reduces a particular behavior, then why not tax unemployment? Why not tax able-bodied people for every day they don’t work. If taxes are a disincentive for a certain type of unapproved behavior, then taxing non-workers should give them special motivation to work.

If liberals want to fight obesity, and taxes are the way to do that, then let’s just tax fat people. Why should people who are not fat and like to eat sweets be made to pay for people who can’t control their appetites? Don’t blame the sugar.

Instead, Congress passes laws to extend unemployment benefits for non-work and may even grant disability to people who can’t work because they are obese. In a counter productive move, liberals raise the tax on the employed to pay for the unemployed, women who have babies out of wedlock, and a whole host of other unproductive behaviors. It makes absolutely no sense. . . unless you’re a liberal.

Liberals have never met a tax they didn’t like. Liberals believe that taxes should be designed to punish. The most productive people in society should be punished for “income inequality.” The new Marxist mayor of New York ran on this premise.

In reality, lower tax rates benefit everybody and income inequality is lessened. The most productive will spend more, save more, and invest more. This then lowers the cost of money, increases the availability of money, with the result that more people are needed to work.

Cigarette taxes are the perfect example of how taxes are counter productive. By increasing the tax on tobacco products, the goal (we’re told) is to stop people from smoking and thus lower healthcare costs. High taxes have only created a black market for cigarettes and reduced tax revenue as this report shows:

“Massachusetts is losing between $74 million and $295 million a year due to people illegally avoiding paying taxes on cigarettes, according to new information provided to the state’s Illegal Tobacco Commission.

“When the state increased its tobacco taxes in July from $2.51 to $3.51 a pack, the increase gave Massachusetts the distinction of having the second-highest cigarette excise tax in the country, after New York. The state, like many others, relies on cigarette taxes to both generate revenue and discourage smoking.”

It won’t be too long before liberals want to tax certain types of speech and media because they deem them harmful. They have proposals to tax ammunition. While the Second Amendment states that we have a “right to bear arms,” it doesn’t say anything about ammunition.

George Harrison got it right when he wrote “Tax Man”:

Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

(If you drive a car car) I’ll tax the street
(If you try to sit sit) I’ll tax your seat
(If you get too cold cold) I’ll tax the heat
(If you take a walk walk) I’ll tax your feet

‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

If you get a head head, I’ll tax your hat
If you get a pet, I’ll tax your cat
If you wipe your feet, I’ll tax your mat
If you’re overweight, I’ll tax your fat

Now my advice to those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

And you’re working for no one, but me

Yes, I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman