Creative Commons Candy Image by Nick Youngson, licensed under CC
In 1776, the Founding Fathers codified a revolutionary concept, the byproduct of hundreds of years of intellectual thought, economic progress, and political chance: Every man, regardless of class, is entitled to certain inalienable rights.
In no other country could such words be uttered and truly meant that every man can achieve whatever they want, that no path is meaningfully restricted to them, and that they are free to live and die as they please, so long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others.
That concept was first embodied in America, and it ought to be conserved in America.
Some politicians, however, like to pick and choose when to apply those values. Recent proposals from Govs. Maura Healy and Wes Moore have made it clear that they are generally willing to throw away their commitment to freedom in the name of higher taxes and nanny-state crackdowns on personal choice.
Candy, for example, may not be the healthiest option at the grocery store, but the state shouldn’t be in the business of deciding what we should and shouldn’t eat. The government doesn’t know why someone might be buying candy. It could be the first time they’ve eaten it in years. It could be for their kid’s birthday party. The state doesn’t know – can’t know – and therefore should not make moral judgments on those individual decisions.
But Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey wants to remove candy from Massachusetts’ sales tax exemption for groceries. Candy isn’t essential, she argues. It’s not like bread and milk, the kinds of products that she alleges the exemption is meant to protect.
But why, exactly, is bread essential? White bread is actually extremely unhealthy, much like candy. So are chips, french fries, fried chicken, and corn dogs. They contain empty carbs, trans fats, and harmful chemicals. Nothing about these items is necessary, and yet they would still enjoy zero taxes. By the same logic Governor Healey is espousing, why shouldn’t we tax them? What about butter and oil? Is there anything, really, we shouldn’t tax?
Maryland’s Wes Moore, just as seemingly oblivious to what our country stands for, similarly wants to impose a big new tax on sugary beverages.
If we start taxing food items simply based on their health value, then most of the average American diet ought to be penalized. In fact, why stop at food? How about computers, because they encourage more sedentary lifestyles, or phones, which may lead to negative mental health outcomes? This logic has no end, and if some Democrats have their way, it will never end. Every time they need to raise revenue, they can simply find another alleged sin to tax.
What’s more insulting is that both of these Governors are only talking about this tax because they can’t get their budgets in order.
In 2023, Massachusetts wasted around a billion dollars on its emergency shelter system, which was used to house illegal immigrants, likely driving up hotel costs in the surrounding area. It’s difficult to measure how many billions the state spent on special projects, but the 2024 budget included over 800 amendments, including $350,000 for a baseball museum and millions in funding for advocacy groups, who shouldn’t be getting money in the first place.
Similarly, Maryland’s budget is full of useless spending. Moore’s 2026 plan doubles the state’s “pollution reduction fund” and doesn’t touch hundreds of millions in Green New Deal- style renewable energy projects, which only serve to hurt the state’s economy. Can Maryland really afford such draconian climate policy when it has a $3 billion budget shortfall that’s slated to double in five years? According to Governor Moore, it can, as long as you’re forced to pay more for sugary foods.
Neither of them wants to look for ways to spend less; they want to spend more. To do so, they needed a new funding source, and so they chose to tax candy.
In the words of Ron Swanson: “The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can! You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.” Not only is it a funny joke, but the principle behind it stands. America is the only country in the world where people fervently believe that they have the right to choose how they live and are willing to fight for those rights. Democrats like Wes Moore and Maura Healey are willing to happily disregard this core aspect of American values as soon as it’s politically convenient.
