In a recent interview with Men’s Health magazine, President Obama floated the idea of pegging a tax on soda and other sugary beverages as part of health care reform. For Obama and his allies in Congress, it’s a two-for-one deal: They can say they’re both raising revenue and combating childhood obesity.

This is baloney and they know it. The cost of health care reform is being talked about in the hundreds of billions of dollars range; no amount of Mountain Dew slurping video game addicts can offset that.

For one thing, sin taxes don’t work. If they did, no one would smoke cigarettes, which face a national tax of $1.01. For another, they’re just plain wrong. Dangerous products, like heroine, should be outlawed. But if we say something’s okay to drink, eat or smoke, that should be the end of the matter.

In this country, we believe that, with only a few reasonable exceptions, the government should stay out of our lives. The national government should not be using its power to tax to dissuade people from legal activities of which it disapproves.

It’s important to teach children about exercise and nutrition. But that job is best left to parents and teachers, not the national government.