The Head of the CDC Was Behind the Big Gulp Soda Ban In New York

“Hey Bloomberg, here’s a big gulp of…..FREEDOM” by Anthony Freda

Bloomberg the Nanny, by William Banzai

Libertarians were outraged by New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s “Big Gulp” ban (which a state court ultimately struck down). They slammed it as a “Nanny State” measure.

But it was current Centers for Disease Control head Tom Frieden who was actually behind the ban.

The New York Times reported in 2004:

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health commissioner,
has turned out to be an active policy advocate among the city’s
department heads, the outspoken architect of some of the Bloomberg
administration’s more controversial policies.

 

Although Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is more closely associated with a
law that bans smoking citywide, the legislation was actually developed
by Dr. Frieden, who was also given responsibility for helping to push it
through the City Council.

 

***

 

Even Mayor Bloomberg’s partnership with Snapple to sell juice in vending machines in schools has not gone without his notice.

 

“I would have preferred water,” he admitted, although he added that he liked the money that the agreement will raise.

 

He is almost certainly the only city agency head who keeps a bowl of condoms in the reception area of his office.

And the Daily Caller reported in 2010:

• In 2009, Frieden took to the pages of the New England Journal of
  Medicine to sell the need for a soda tax. “It is difficult to imagine
  producing behavior change of this magnitude through education alone,
  even if government devoted massive resources to the task,” Frieden
  wrote. “Only heftier taxes will significantly reduce consumption.”

• In 2010, after Obama tapped Frieden to head up the Centers for
  Disease Control, Bloomberg announced his support for a soda tax. “The
  soda tax is a fix that just makes sense,” he said in a March 2010 radio
  address. “It would save lives. It would cut rising health care costs.
  And it would keep thousands of teachers and nurses where they belong: in
  the classrooms and clinics.” Three years earlier, Bloomberg said he was
  opposed to a soda tax.