CEI Today: Bloomberg soda ban ruling, escape from Obamacare, and an Internet sales tax

BLOOMBERG SODA BAN – MICHELLE MINTON

CEI.org: CEI Analyst on Court Overturning Soda Ban in NYC: “Sweet!”

A state judge in New York has struck down the ban enacted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on sales of sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city has indicated it will appeal immediately. Michelle Minton, Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has been a vocal opponent of the ban since it was proposed.

“Although it’s great a judge has recognized the error of Mayor Bloomberg’s ways, it shouldn’t take a court ruling for New York City residents to have the right to make their own decisions about how and when to consume goods like soda.”

OBAMACARE – JOHN BERLAU

National Review: Escape from Obamacare

Small businesses look to self-insurance as way to avoid Obamacare’s costs and mandates

Come 2014, the year Obamacare is set to go into full effect, young adults could see their health-insurance premiums soar by as much as 189 percent, according to a new study from GOP staffers on House and Senate committees.

The phenomenon of small businesses’ self-insuring provides plenty of reason for optimism, provided that Obamacare boosters don’t find a way to shut down the self-insurance.

INTERNET SALES TAX – JESSICA MELUGIN

Washington Examiner: Internet sales tax bill a bad idea

If less complexity, fewer loopholes and lower rates are the signposts of meaningful tax reform, the dubiously named Marketplace Fairness Act embodies the exact opposite.

The act, introduced in both houses of Congress last month, would empower states to collect sales tax from companies with no physical presence within their borders. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and in the House by Rep. Steve Womack, R Ark., among others, would greatly expand state tax collectors’ reach, resulting in a huge tax hike on many online and catalog purchases.