Satisfying your sweet tooth may soon require deeper pockets.

Congress, with President Barack Obama’s support, is considering placing a tax on sugary beverages like pop and energy drinks with the hopes of curtailing obesity. Or so they say.

With many health studies relating the consumption of pop to obesity, Congress has explored the idea of tacking a one-cent tax per ounce, which would increase the cost of a case of pop approximately 45 percent. Many estimates predict this could produce $14.9 billion in tax revenue for the federal government.

What a great idea! Give the federal government, whose only real skill is wasting our money, more money. They tell us the revenue generated from the tax will be directed to obesity-prevention programs, Medicaid, health care subsidies and the less fortunate. But they also promised the nation’s unemployment rate would not exceed eight percent after passing the stimulus bill (it is nearly 10 percent).

This tax could also harm Ohio State University, whose 70-year relationship with Coca-Cola has led to the construction of the RPAC and the nearly completed Ohio Union.

Additional funding from the soft drink giant has been directed to Honors and Scholars programs, recycling programs, internships and career development opportunities.

These perks and pleasures could become a thing of the past if the Coca-Cola Company, and other corporations like it, are punished for selling their products. Such a punishment would likely be felt on campus.

What’s worse is the government’s real motive, which is not to decrease the obesity rate; they would be perfectly happy if people bought more pop. Their sole mission is to produce tax revenue. Raising “sin taxes” paints the illusion that the government is being compassionate, when their real interest is money and control.

If the proposed legislation truly is intended to decrease consumption, it would impose a dollar-per-ounce tax. Then almost no one would purchase the products. But that would not produce any revenue. Therefore, they raise the tax by a seemingly insignificant amount so customers will continue to purchase the products, which leads to greater government proceeds.

We do not live in the United Nanny States of America. Yet our government tries to intervene in our everyday lives like a nosy guidance counselor that nobody wants or needs. They tell us that increasing soda taxes benefits the American people and that they are “tackling obesity.”

But the first step to losing weight is to get the government off our backs.