The Latest Salvo in the War on Fun...

(With credit to Exra Levant, who wrote an excellent book on the same subject...)

Take one of the worst managed cities on earth, add in a whopping $300 million deficit, and toss in one really assinine idea.

The result: Detroit City Council is considering a tax on all Fast-Food sold within the city.

Apparently, someone has been using Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" as his budget prep homework.

I could argue that taxing food sold within a city is an abuse of the ability that municipality has to taxation. But hey - lets assume that I'm wrong. Let's assume that Detroit is a perfect city, that all the money raised will go towards healthcare and municipally run health care programs. After all, fast food consumption leads to increased health issues, right?

This is what other greedy municipalities are using as the crux of the same argument. "Other cities and states have special taxes on prepared food, and some have tried "snack taxes." In New York, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has proposed a 1 percent tax on junk food, video games and TV commercials to fund anti-obesity programs."

Here's where that argument falls apart - "if approved, the Detroit tax would be the country's first to target fast-food outlets, the National Restaurant Association said. The tax would apply to anything sold at a fast-food restaurant - even salads."

Call it what it is. It's not a taxing bad behavior... it's attacking a somewhat vulnerable industry in order to avoid making tough decisions on your own deplorable spending habits.