Thank You Democrats/Communist -US state wants to tax TVs, video games to fight fat

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US state wants to tax TVs, video games to fight fat, fund education

A Democratic lawmaker in New Mexico wants to tax televisions and video games to raise funds to fight childhood obesity and improve education in the state, officials said Friday.
"I have asked our legislative council service to prepare the "Leave No Child Inside" bill and am hopeful that it will be ready for me to introduce on Monday," educator-turned-lawmaker Gail Chasey told AFP.

"Leave No Child Inside" -- a play on the federal education initiative "No Child Left Behind" -- is backed by grassroots environmental group, the Sierra Club.

"The bill proposes levying a one-percent excise tax on the purchase of TVs, video games and video game equipment and would create the 'Leave No Child Inside' fund to receive those revenues," Michael Casaus of the Sierra Club told AFP.

The author and sponsors of the bill, who include dozens of other organizations besides the Sierra Club, according to Casaus, expect to raise four million dollars (three million euros) a year through the tax.

The items that would be taxed have been carefully chosen because of their links to obesity and poor school performance, the Sierra Club says, citing medical studies.

Around one-quarter of New Mexico's children are obese or overweight, and just over half finish high school, said Casaus.

"The goals of the bill are to improve the academic performances of our kids, to promote a more healthy lifestyle and to provide our children with outdoor learning experiences, using our state parks and public lands as classrooms," he said.

According to a study cited by backers of the bill, hands-on, outdoor study leads to better grades among students, including in mathematics and science.

Another study has shown a 27-percent improvement in the science test scores of students who participate in outdoor education programs.

Earlier this week, a high school in the US state of Georgia launched another unique initiative to boost the math and science grades of students.

Creekside High School near Atlanta offered students money to attend remedial classes in the two subjects for 15 weeks and a monetary bonus for maintaining a "B" grade average afterwards.

Guess the 50% plus I pay isn't enough

Source

[Bluto]

They would be better off taxing the hell out of McDonalds and other fast food stores.

[HiramAbiff]

History has shown, time and time again, that a particular tax that is levied for specific earmarks will

A) Grow to be larger than originally planned
B) Be spent on things other than originally intended (more often than not, just become a source of general funds)
C) Continue to be levied when the problem is was levied for disappears or drastically lessens.

Which is why I favor either a flat national sales tax, a flat income tax, or a flat negative income tax, to replace all current forms of taxation (with the possible exception of fines). Why flat? So rises and dips in government expenditures are as transparent as possible to people of all income groups, rather than using the current trick of cutting miniscule taxes on middle and lower income brackets while jacking up already high taxes on higher income brackets or corporations.

And to make this on-topic: Warner Bros.

[BamaPanda]

Originally Posted by HiramAbiff

History has shown, time and time again, that a particular tax that is levied for specific earmarks will

A) Grow to be larger than originally planned
B) Be spent on things other than originally intended (more often than not, just become a source of general funds)
C) Continue to be levied when the problem is was levied for disappears or drastically lessens.

Which is why I favor either a flat national sales tax, a flat income tax, or a flat negative income tax, to replace all current forms of taxation (with the possible exception of fines). Why flat? So rises and dips in government expenditures are as transparent as possible to people of all income groups, rather than using the current trick of cutting miniscule taxes on middle and lower income brackets while jacking up already high taxes on higher income brackets or corporations.

And to make this on-topic: Warner Bros.

Amen to the flat tax ..but something we will probably never see. The power hungry we elect to lead us will wait till the last minute to give up their precious control. By then it will be too late. This county will be toast, or so close to it that we will just be a joke to rest of the world.

[Pistol Pete]

Hooray to a congressman who has the courage to speak out against a "growing" problem (pardon the pun) in the US.

Are you guys paying attention around you? Or have you not gotten off the couch in a while.

You may not like the proposal. Great! That's what America and democracy is all about.

There needs to be debate. There needs to be discussion. There needs to be ideas. There needs to be a solution

There needs to be action!

It's funny how those who are so quick to judge and resort to name calling are the same ones who wish to impose their narrow religous views on others.

If the subject were abortion, prayer in schools and teaching of creationism, I bet a bunch of you would be dancing and hollering.

One cannot ignore problems or think that God has all the answers.

We are the solution. It is our actions and deeds that define us. If we do nothing, nothing happens.

[Ntruder]

"Democrats/Communists..."

Wow, looks like somebody has been living in a closet their whole life. Clearly you know nothing about politics, so maybe you should stay away from discussing them.

[mshulman]

The problem is not video games, Mc Donalds or anything else but the Parents.

Parents need to take more responsibility for their kids and ensure they are active and eating healthy.

Only thing that I think would help - and much more so than just for obesity would be requireing a license for having kinds. But that will never happen in this country.

[Type A]

The concept of 'eating right and exercising' had been around long before video games and tvs were invented. Rather than making gamers and tv owners pay for these lazy people who over-eat, cant we just speed along their heart attack and be done with it? Now thats the kind of 'education' Id be happy to finance.

[richiephx1]

Originally Posted by mshulman

The problem is not video games, Mc Donalds or anything else but the Parents.

Parents need to take more responsibility for their kids and ensure they are active and eating healthy.

Only thing that I think would help - and much more so than just for obesity would be requireing a license for having kinds. But that will never happen in this country.

Another option would be birth control

[DodgerKing]

Originally Posted by Ntruder

"Democrats/Communists..."

Wow, looks like somebody has been living in a closet their whole life. Clearly you know nothing about politics, so maybe you should stay away from discussing them.

I wouldn't go as far as calling them Communists, but socialists they definitely are.

[DodgerKing]

Originally Posted by HiramAbiff

History has shown, time and time again, that a particular tax that is levied for specific earmarks will

A) Grow to be larger than originally planned
B) Be spent on things other than originally intended (more often than not, just become a source of general funds)
C) Continue to be levied when the problem is was levied for disappears or drastically lessens.

Which is why I favor either a flat national sales tax, a flat income tax, or a flat negative income tax, to replace all current forms of taxation (with the possible exception of fines). Why flat? So rises and dips in government expenditures are as transparent as possible to people of all income groups, rather than using the current trick of cutting miniscule taxes on middle and lower income brackets while jacking up already high taxes on higher income brackets or corporations.

And to make this on-topic: Warner Bros.

Could not have said it better myself!!

[DodgerKing]

Originally Posted by Pistol Pete

Hooray to a congressman who has the courage to speak out against a "growing" problem (pardon the pun) in the US.

Are you guys paying attention around you? Or have you not gotten off the couch in a while.

You may not like the proposal. Great! That's what America and democracy is all about.

There needs to be debate. There needs to be discussion. There needs to be ideas. There needs to be a solution

There needs to be action!

It's funny how those who are so quick to judge and resort to name calling are the same ones who wish to impose their narrow religous views on others.

If the subject were abortion, prayer in schools and teaching of creationism, I bet a bunch of you would be dancing and hollering.

One cannot ignore problems or think that God has all the answers.

We are the solution. It is our actions and deeds that define us. If we do nothing, nothing happens.

So the solution to a problem should be handled by the government, the most inefficient source of any solution?

Where is the line drawn between what the government is responsible for and what parents are responsible for?

[bandit67]

Why can't they focus on protecting our borders form illegal invaders or the punks stealing my car radio and let us worry about the social ills of raising fat kids. I cannot think of one government program where my tax dollars are responsably spent and accounted for. Gezzzzzz why do we elect these idiots......

[SLedford]

Mike Huckabee, our former Governor here in Arkansas, put through a program in the schools to measure the body fat of each student and add that to the report card. The idea was that the parent would get some idea how the child was doing physically while they were reading the scores of how they were doing educationally.

Of course the teachers unions were opposed to this. Seem that even something as minor as weighing and reporting TO PARENTS the body fat index of their child was bad because IT MIGHT HURT THE SELF ESTEEM OF THE CHILD.

I don't know what the answer is, but offering more outdoor options to the kids as part of school might be an answer. Maybe a "kids explorer passport" with each "country" stamped as it is visited. Supervised jogging for a mile each day would be logged. Ten miles gets you to Canada, 20 to Greenland and so on. Let the child plan their route, with the idea being to visit as many countries as possible during the school year.

Actually, this could be tied into learning geography as well. Learn a little about the "country" while you are there.

[HiramAbiff]

Originally Posted by DodgerKing

So the solution to a problem should be handled by the government, the most inefficient source of any solution?

I hate these off-topic political posts, but I have to correct you there. There are things the government can do more efficiently than the people can do for themselves, such as maintain law and order, provide public goods, enforce contracts, fight fraud and coercion, deal with externalities, etc.