American Beat: Let's Hear It For A Fat Tax

I got a tiny taste of what Ortiz went through. When I defended her proposal last year, two right-wing talk radio hosts in Los Angeles read my column on the air, albeit annotated with frequent personal attacks. Then they topped it off by making fun of my last name, which is the kind of high-level comic genius that made Jimmy Franz the funniest guy in my school--when we were in fourth grade, that is.

When they finally let me talk about what I liked about the proposal, they shut up long enough for me to get a word in. And then they started making fun of my name again. So much for reasoned discourse.

California's Ortiz said the only problem with the so-called fat taxes is timing. "The first phases of any battle like this are the bloodiest," she told me. "It took 20 years for the general public, even conservatives, to get to the right place on tobacco." Now, Ortiz said, a new poll showed that 72 percent of Republican women in California support her proposal for a $1.50 hike in the state's tax on cigarettes.

Ortiz believes that some day trans fats, hydrogenated oils and carbohydrates will be understood as the killers they are (although we not only love the taste of these fats and sugars, but their cost: high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil are much cheaper to produce).

On talk radio you hear the argument that Americans don't need government to be our Big Brother or, in this case, our Big Nanny. I would argue that we do. We don't read labels on anything, for some reason trusting big food-processing conglomerates and fast food restaurants to feed us whatever mix of chemicals they can manufacture cheaply yet still have the finished product vaguely resemble food.

And, as Henny Youngman used to say, "Take my mother. Please." Here's a woman who is as sweet as the day is long and as savvy a consumer as Ralph Nader. But does she ever read a label? Does she know what a partially hydrogenated fat is? When she baby-sits for my 2-year-old, she always knows to ask me if it's all right for her to give my daughter "a little treat," usually a cookie or a biscuit. And I always say this: Of course it's OK to give her a treat. But if the label says "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil," that's not a tasty treat, it's a toxic taint.

Gersh Kuntzman is also a columnist for The New York Post. His Web site is at www.gersh.tv

© 2003