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At a meeting this week in Chicago, the American Medical Association will consider

a tax on sugary soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi to fund a public education

campaign to fight obesity. According to the Chicago Sun Times, the Center for Science in the Public Interest

estimates that a one-cent tax per can can raise 1.5 billion dollars a year.

That's a lot of money. More than the... $1.5 billion a year.

That's a lot of money, more than the advertising budget of McDonald's, in fact.

Are Americans about to slim down into their skinny genes, or is the AMA funding another ineffectual fad diet? Cato policy analyst Radley Balco

weighs in.

Radley, why do I get the feeling you're going to say this soda tax is a bad idea?

Well, you're right, it is a bad idea.

There are a couple reasons.

One is there's really no conclusive proof that soda is the reason why Americans are putting on weight.

In fact, consumption of non-diet soda has remained relatively constant since the late

1980s and of course that's the very

period over which we've been getting fatter and in fact the only type of soft drink

that's increased dramatically over that period and in sales and consumption is bottled water,

which of course has no calories at all.

So there's really no conclusive data that soda is the cause of the obesity problem. I think it's more a matter of people are eating more

and exercising less and I think to single out one type of food to blame and to slap a tax

...