WASHINGTON — A push for new taxes on soda, beer and wine to help pay for Americans’ health care is stirring up more than just the beverage industry.
Advertisers, corn refiners and even addiction-treatment centers have mobilized their lobbyists, reflecting how a tax increase for a handful of popular products can reverberate broadly across Washington’s interest groups.
The Senate Finance Committee is considering raising taxes on alcohol and imposing a new levy on soda and other naturally sweetened drinks to help pay for overhauling health care. The committee calls them “lifestyle tax proposals,” saying the levies would slow sales of unhealthy products that contribute to rising medical costs.
Soft-drink and alcohol lobbyists have snapped into action, though so far their campaigns have been quiet compared with the blaring, multimillion-dollar battles that typify major showdowns.
Their low-key approach is partly because of committee leaders’ warnings to refrain from public attacks or be accused of sabotaging health-care overhaul. They’ve also held back because they have faced only modest lobbying from tax proponents and because they think the proposal may prove so unpopular that it ultimately won’t threaten their businesses.
“They don’t want to call attention to a quietly smoldering fire,” said Rogan Kersh, an associate dean at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.
