Good examination by Michael Wickline in today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of the soft drink industry’s 29-year effort to kill a soft drink tax that supports the state Medicaid program.

The governor and soda pop sellers are close to achieving the goal. The health care industry, sustained by the money the tax produces, is rightly skeptical that legislators will make good on their promise to replace the lost money — $40 million a year when repeal would be fully phased in — with general revenue. Not with millionaires standing in line for more income tax cuts they won’t.

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Read the story. It has all the ins and outs.

But I wanted to point out some laughable points:

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  1. That the tax — estimated generously at 2 cents a can — is an impediment to economic development in Arkansas (says Asa).
  2. That it sends state-border residents across state lines to get their Mountain Dew (says Steve Goode, the former state bureaucrat and grocery store owner).

Sorry. Amazon wouldn’t locate here because we have a soft-drink tax? And I don’t believe people in West Memphis are hopping on I-40 to go to Tennessee to buy Cokes. Also count me skeptical that those two cents will be returned to consumers if the tax is repealed.

Any soft drink addict knows that the key to soft drink purchasing is to make bulk purchases for the regular markdowns. Example today at Kroger: Buy a 12-pack for $5.99 or buy three 12-packs for $13, saving you more than 8 cents a can.

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PS: Courtesy of a friend. Now we know the real reason the Chinese pulled out of that billion-dollar pulp mill in Clark County. They were pissed about the tax on the drinks in the break room vending machine.