03 Jun 2012 Banning Soda Restricts Freedoms for Little Good, Says Jeff Stier on CNN

Posted at 14:20h in Blog, Health, Risk Analysis by

National Center Risk Analysis Division Director Jeff Stier was featured on CNN’s Headline News Thursday, reacting to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to seek restrictions on the sale of large beverages in the city.

Said Jeff, in part:

Banning large sodas is silly. The mayor to his credit wants to help us solve the problem. Banning it isn’t the way to go. People say, well might this do a little bit of good?

Well, there are a lot of things that restrict our freedoms that might do a little bit of good, but at the end of the day, we’ll still only have done a little bit of good, and we’ll have no freedoms left.

I was in front of your studio here at CNN in New York, and they were selling large ice cream cones. They looked really good; I choose not to have one. It’s about individual choice. People should make these decisions. The government can’t come in and solve this problem.



The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.