Should There Be a Tax on Unhealthy Food?

Should There Be A Tax On Unhealthy Food?

Any person, who knows common history, should know that Americans don't like their government messing with the food or drinks that they chose. Even though it is a little hard to believe, that Americans would dump cans of diet spite or whole grain bread into the Boston Harbor ,but people should be free and responsible enough to make their own choices and mistakes. People do many kinds of unhealthy things, but just because they are not good ideas, does not mean it is the state or governments business to restrict tax or limit it. Thinking literal, taxing junk food is a good idea, but what some people think might work could damage snack food companies and even more, our freedom of choice

The snack and fast food companies provide one of the main job sources in the United States. Fast food may not be healthy but it is cheap and can feed people with low incomes. As of November 2010 the United States had 139,415,000 jobs (O'Brien) Thirty percent of which are in the fast food industry. In the modern day economy, unemployment has been increasing. In 2009 the unemployment was at 6.1 percent. Just recently more jobs were added because of the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is responsible for this. It states that if a business has fifty or more fulltime workers than an extra tax will be applied to the business to help with the medical devices tax that will help pay for the Affordable Care Act expenses(Kirchhoff). As good as this may or may not sound, but many jobs have been changed from full time to part time. On top of it, the most resent posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department, as of February 19, 2013, shows that the national debt has risen almost five trillion since Bush's last day as president, to $15.566 trillion. The federal budget sent by president Obama a month ago, expects the national debt to increase exponentially to $25.9 trillion in 2022 (Clemmitt). Families now are making less money, because of fewer hours for something that was meant to help Americans. If taxing junk food works the way supporters want; the snack food companies could lose business meaning less jobs and higher priced foods for the already struggling families and may increase the country's debt. Many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Many families cannot feed their kids property and are still going hungry themselves How this proposed tax on unhealthy foods going to help with obesity when it is not sure it will work how it is supposed to?

Part of what makes America a free country is the right to choose. To live where we want to live and be who we want. Most people are confused when it comes to the differences between government control and government protection. Many laws have been enforced for our safety like: wearing a seat belt while driving, needing a permit to own guns and having to pass through security to go on a plane. These laws may be tedious to some people, but they are meant to protect citizens of America. There are many people who cannot