As many Cook County residents know, there has recently been a sugary drink tax implemented in an effort to discourage local residents buyers from purchasing sugary drinks. According to those who support the tax, this is supposed to counter the epidemic of childhood obesity, and diabetes, which can both be caused by the excessive consumption of sugary drinks. The tax is a penny an ounce, which may not seem like a lot but it adds up as you buy larger drinks. For example, if you were to buy a 12 pack of coke cans, you’d end up paying $2.88 more now after adding a penny for each ounce in the pack. The goal of the tax is to discourage people from buying sugary drinks, however in most cases, people will just end up buying the drink anyway regardless of the tax. It seems as if the underlying goal in this tax is to get more money from drinks that legislators they know people are going to buy anyway, and they just realized that they can get more money for it. As John Marshall  says, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”  The question the public needs to consider is this: Do you think that the sugary drink tax is to curtail childhood obesity and decrease the number of those suffering with diabetes, or is the tax more a ploy by for the government to collect more money off of popular drinks that a majority of people already buy?