Aspartame subsidy to go national?

New York Gov. David Paterson's proposed aspartame subsidy damaged dearly his public confidence - but that doesn't stop "experts" from trying to take this policy nationwide.

Aspartame, as you may know, usually appears under the name NutraSweet. It's a dangerous artificial sweetener that fills everything from diet soft drinks to sugarless bubble gum. Its dangers have largely been covered up, but the perils of aspartame are significant enough that Hawaii legislators recently passed a resolution asking the FDA to rescind approval of this product. (NutraSweet was approved because Donald Scumsfeld headed the company that made it. The company later became part of greedy biotech firm Monsanto.)

Under this proposed subsidy, regular soft drinks would face a new tax of one cent per fluid ounce - while diet soft drinks would have no new tax at all.

Taxing food is questionable and ill-advised. But taxing regular sodas but not diet sodas is outrageous. If they positively need a soda tax, what's the excuse for not taxing both regular and that diet shit?

The rationale is that the tax would fight sugar-related conditions like the "obesity pandemic." Then why no tax to fight aspartame-related conditions like cancer?

Much of this is because the aspartame industry still has a lot of clout. But let's not kid ourselves: The diet soft drinks have more of an elite appeal. Do you really think that if diet sodas had less of an upscale appeal than the regular sodas that we'd be seeing this proposed subsidy?

I for one am a little fed up with going to the store and seeing a whole shelf full of a diet product staring down at me while not a single container of the regular stuff is anywhere in sight.

Aspartame is legal. I have no more desire to outlaw it than to subsidize it. But I do believe that products with aspartame should prominently carry a skull-and-crossbones sign - the traditional symbol for poison.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5378SX20090408)