In fact, there will be a panel discussion on how public policy can help impact childhood obesity. This should be a really interesting discussion as panelists discuss the impact of obesity here in the United States and how key stakeholders – government, industry, the public health community – can work together to tackle it.  For the sake of transparency, we should let you know that ABA President and CEO Susan Neely will be moderating the panel, but participants will include representatives from the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Also of interest, The Coca-Cola Company’s Sandy Douglas will be one of the keynote speakers.  There are myriad other events going on over the course of the three days, so if you’re a member our industry, we hope to see you in Washington, D.C.!

As Congress works to come up with billions of dollars for an ambitious health care program, all and any ideas that would tax people in a variety of ways remain a real possibility. Consumers beware.

But, Jacobson and his tax crowd got off to a rough start yesterday. First, the Senate Finance Committee barely gave him much attention, focusing more on the other dozen-plus panelists talking about serious ways to reform and pay for improved health care. Ideas that will actually make an impact for people.

When Jacobson did get his brief moment in front of the microphone, the committee chairman didn’t give him much time, cutting him off to question whether CSPI’s ideas were “politically palatable” before then moving on to the next panelist.

Other reactions in Washington yesterday around the idea of a soda tax:

Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, was asked earlier in the day by reporters whether the soda tax has any chance of getting through. His response: “No. I think, quite frankly, the only reason it’s being brought up is to get it shot down early so it doesn’t become part of the debate. I don’t think it’s going to have any legs at all.”

Rep. John Boehner, the leader of House Republicans, put out several quotes from President Obama reminding the media of his commitment that a family earning less than $250,000 a year will not see their taxes increase a single dime.

Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wasn’t wavering from that commitment. While confessing to reporters to being a good consumer of a certain soft drink, he begged off discussing specific funding proposals being tossed out. But, Mr. Gibbs did say this when asked if health care reform could be done without any increase in taxation: “I think that – well, the President discussed in the campaign certain ways to pay for health care reform that included an increase in taxes on the very wealthy.”

If you peruse the reader comments to many of the stories posted in major newspapers yesterday, as well as blog posts, they again reflect a strong disdain for government using the tax code to tell people what to eat or how to feed their children. Not to mention great skepticism that a tax would have any impact on health care, but is actually just a money grab.

A few of our favorites. Tom wrote in the Wall Street Journal blog: “Another government money grab. Another mother (gov) knows all act in order to take away from individual sensibilities, while robbing corporate america in the name of “saving your children”. When will America wake up and be responsible for themselves. Please get government out of my refrigerator.”

And Indeptex4 quoted Margaret Thatcher in his post on the CBS News blog: “The end of Socialism is when you run out of other people’s money.”

Clearly, people aren’t looking to be taxed for their beverages or other consumer goods – as the leaders of New York and Maine have already learned in the past six months when their tax schemes failed.

But, the battle remains and taxpayers must stay vigilant. Prominent Senate Democrat and health care advocate Tom Harkin of Iowa told Bloomberg news yesterday that he supports a tax on soft drinks and junk food. And Democrats like Sen. Harkin control the Congress right now, not the Republicans.

Over the next few months, lawmakers are going to be scrambling to find money to pay for their ambitious health care ideas. At some point, they’ll likely come looking to your pockets as some started to yesterday. So again, consumers beware.

New York’s governor proposed a tax hike on soft drinks and other beverages in December. It received such a backlash from New Yorkers that the governor and legislative leaders held a news conference to pull back the proposal just months later.

Now, the pro-tax activists are trying to persuade federal lawmakers to raise taxes on soft drinks and other beverages. You may have read about the Senate Finance Committee roundtable today that is looking at ways to finance health care reform.

Well, we hope the federal leaders don’t take the bait.

Because taxes won’t make a dent in addressing health care. And it makes no sense singling out one set of products for taxation when obesity is such a complex problem with a multitude of contributors. In fact, the data undermines the critics’ entire premise: soft drinks sales have declined annually since 2000, while obesity rates have risen throughout this decade.

Look, the beverage industry knows that childhood obesity is a serious problem. And it’s going to take comprehensive and thoughtful solutions to reduce it and prevent it.

This is why our industry stepped up years ago with the national School Beverage Guidelines that we developed with the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association through their Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Through the guidelines, our industry is taking all full-calorie soft drinks out of school. And we’re capping calories and portion-sizes on the beverages that remain. A pretty tough policy with real financial consequences for our industry, but the right thing to do.

Why? Because schools are unique places – places of education. It is here that students should learn the one full-proof equation for maintaining a healthy weight: balance calories consumed from all foods with calories burned through exercise. And we believed it was important that the beverages we sell in schools help reinforce calorie balance. We also know that schools are places where parents aren’t around to watch what their kids eat.

And our efforts are delivering results. In two years, we’ve already cut calories by 58 percent in schools, and nearly 80 percent of schools under contract are already in compliance.

Lawmakers need to focus on more common sense solutions like this. Solutions that do the hard work of teaching our children how to balance calories and, by doing so, give them the skills to maintain a healthy weight throughout their lifetime.

A tax won’t teach children any skills, nor will it have a lasting, meaningful impact on reducing childhood obesity. A tax is just the wrong public policy for such a complex problem.

Plus, people believe government is overreaching when it uses the tax code to tell people what to eat or how to feed their children. That’s not government’s role.

So where do things stand? There are already two strikes on the beverage tax idea in the past six months. We hope that Congress makes this strike three.

While that will do right by families and their children, it unfortunately won’t eliminate the food police like CSPI, the Rudd Center or others who make their living – literally, their income – by bashing foods and beverages. There’s too much money at stake for them to take a seat after striking out…. or at least working towards more reasonable solutions that would actually make a difference. Just keep their self-interested motives in mind, too, as you consider these tax proposals.