by Kristina Rasmussen

Your tax dollars are being used to study higher "fat taxes":

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have received $1 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study the relationship between "fat taxes" and food consumption, diet quality and obesity.

The funding for the two-year project was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The related press release notes that one of the project researchers is Frank Chaloupka, professor of economics and director of the Health Policy Center. In October, Chaloupka co-published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine where he went on the record in favor of higher soda taxes. In particular, he called the reasons to proceed with levying taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages "compelling.

Taxpayers are in essence funding a study that will likely call for even higher taxes on the products we consume every day. This isn't change we can believe in.