Illinois Stimulus Project Makes 100 List

by Kristina Rasmussen Yesterday Will blogged about the “Summertime Blues” list of 100 silly stimulus projects (compiled by friend-of-the-taxpayer Senator Tom Coburn). Will didn’t mention it, but there was an Illinois project on that list, coming in at number 72: 72. Studying Whether a Soda Tax Will Stimulate Health (Chicago, IL) – $521,005 The current administration has previously...

by Kristina Rasmussen

Yesterday Will blogged about the “Summertime Blues” list of 100 silly stimulus projects (compiled by friend-of-the-taxpayer Senator Tom Coburn).

Will didn’t mention it, but there was an Illinois project on that list, coming in at number 72:

72. Studying Whether a Soda Tax Will Stimulate Health (Chicago, IL) – $521,005

The current administration has previously discussed taxing soda and other sugary drinks as “an idea we should be exploring.”450    While it is hard to disagree that soda and other sugary drinks are contributing factors to the national obesity epidemic, it is easy to disagree whether federal dollars should be used to study the relationship between taxes and obesity. All the same, the University of Illinois received more than half a million dollars to do just that.

You’ll remember that Fox News covered our highlighting of this egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars back in December.