Writer: Outrage At Increased Soda Price Is Misguided

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Writer Brian Hickey does not share the outrage growing in Philadelphia following the implementation of the sugary drinks tax that is raising the cost of soda and other beverages, telling Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that sugar is not healthy and that those opposed to the tax should've been more focal when the tax was being considered.

"I think it's an easy, widespread mark in a lot of ways. What would a cheesesteak tax do except say why are you singling out this specific food? A lot of foods are unhealthy for you.  But with the soda, it's not a healthy product and it's an easy mark. You can get away with rallying public support, to a certain extent, behind it because of that. I'm not ranting about it on a health level though, it's more, pay attention to stuff when it's going on in your government."

Hickey, who writes for the Philly Voice, also said consumers should be more upset that the bottlers of these products are passing the cost of the tax on to them.

"It's easy to put it all on the tax itself as opposed to the fact that it's not getting absorbed higher up. The bottler is just giving it to the supermarket who is just throwing it at the consumer. That point goes missed. That, kind of, is what worries me the most about it. Don't blame the politicians for crafting the tax. Follow it all the way through and realize that is the bottlers passing it down to the supermarkets. It's not so much the tax itself as opposed to it getting shifted down."