Phildelphia Put A Stupid Tax On Soda And Other Sugary Drinks. It Went About As Well As You’d Expect.

I could see this coming from ten miles away. You probably could too.

According to this, Philadelphia’s idiotic soda tax is damaging businesses to the point where grocers and restaurants are having to cut jobs. Oh, and the city’s revenue is down drastically (if you care about that sort of thing) –

One of the city’s largest beverage distributors is planning to cut 20 percent of its workforce, Philly.com reports, and grocery stores across the city are also planning to shed jobs to make up for declining sales. It appears that the tax is causing some shoppers to drive beyond the city’s borders in order to do their grocery shopping (who could have seen that coming, right?).

“In 30 years of business, there’s never been a circumstance in which we’ve ever had a sales decline of any significant amount,” Jeff Brown, chief executive officer of Brown’s Super Stores, told Bloomberg. “I would describe the impact as nothing less than devastating.”

The stupid part of this whole debacle? The mayor is blaming the EEEEEEEEEVIL soda companies for hiking the prices! Yes, really –

For now, [Mayor Jim] Kenney and other city officials seem unfazed—dismissive, even—of the problems caused by the new tax. A city spokesman told Philly.com that no one knows whether low sales figures and predicted job losses are anything more than “fear-mongering to prevent this from happening in other cities.”

Kenney put an even finer point on it.

“I didn’t think it was possible for the soda industry to be any greedier,” Kenney said in an emailed statement to Philly.com reporter Julia Terruso. “They are so committed to stopping this tax from spreading to other cities, that they are not only passing the tax they should be paying onto their customer, they are actually willing to threaten working men and women’s jobs rather than marginally reduce their seven figure bonuses.”

Soooo… the city government comes in and puts a hefty tax on soda, thus raising the prices. Businesses and consumers are now on the hook for the cost. And the government blames the SODA COMPANIES for the price increase???

Kenney’s also blamed grocery stores and restaurants for similarly raising the prices. Just to show you the kind of nitwit we’re dealing with. It’s NEVER the precious city government’s anti-business policies that are to blame, is it?

I remain convinced that only the dumbest people get elected in Democrat-stronghold cities. How in the WORLD do you sit there and say “We’re going to raise the price of soda” and then you’re surprised when the price goes up?! Talk about your short-term memory. What, did Philly voters elect a bunch of goldfish to run their city or something?

Bunch of mental giants we’re dealing with in this country. Good grief.