Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan, a local sports radio station in Washington, D.C., took on the proposed federal tax on soda Thursday on his show "Chad Dukes Vs the World," and actually raised some interesting points.
"Is there anyone in America, from any background, that doesn't know that sodas are not good for you?" Dukes began. "Is there any doubt [...] that you shouldn't drink soda, that you should drink water? [...] We keep putting these signs up, these warnings up like this information isn't already on the present. It is, it's Big Brother and the holding company [...] It's everywhere, it's all over the place, we know it. No one's going to not buy soda because of a soda tax."
Dukes went on to compare the problem of sugary drinks to the problem of concussions in football:
We need to get at the core of why people are still drinking sodas, and I don't think that has anything to do with putting the calories on the side of the label [...] We've got the information, it's like the NFL, it's like the concussions. [...] People needed to be made aware of the longstanding implications of getting hit in the head over and over and over, [...] but once you know, once you have the risks, you're able to make what I like to call an adult decision. And I can decide whether or not I want to play football, whether my kid plays football, or whether my kid can have a Double Gulp or not.
Dukes also slammed the government's increasing control over society as a whole:
This parent state we've entered into is incredibly frustrating to me, not as frustrating as it is to see how many people seem to enjoy it, and seem to think turning over control of their own live to an ever-expanding government is the way to go. It's not. Soda taxes are not the way to go [...] Let's start acting like adults, let's raise our game. Let's show that we can take control, that we can be mature. [...] Let's show that we can do that, so we don't need the soda taxes and the soda bans and all of the nonsense that we're going through right now.
I'll drink to that, Mr. Dukes.
For more on the proposed federal soda tax, check out this week's edition of MRCTV's "Reality Check" below: