Have you seen the television commercial with the mother checking out at a grocery store, complaining about the government’s proposal to tax soda and further invade her freedoms? Well, Assemblymember Bill Monning (D-27th District) can explain: he introduced a bill to the Golden State’s legislature that would attach a one cent-per-ounce tax on all sweetened beverages sold in California, such as sodas, sport drinks and sweetened teas. If passed, the bill, Assembly Bill 669, could generate $1.7 billion each year, which would be used to fund childhood obesity programs and to decrease the public costs incurred from health problems associated with childhood obesity, which currently total to about $41 billion per year, according to a press release from Monning’s staff. If current obesity trends don’t change, it’s expected that one in three American children will develop Type II diabetes in their lifetime.
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