Our Mayor Scrooge McDuck laughed in the face of his poor foes yesterday, fresh off a win for his proposal to max out sugary drinks from restaurants, movie theaters, and food vendors at sixteen ounces per cup. Despite the various loopholes, like the exemption for the mythic 7-Eleven Big Gulp and the existence of refills, the ban is being touted as “historic,” and Bloomberg did a hell of a job pushing this thing through with little resistance, if he does say so himself. “This is the single biggest step any city, I think, has ever taken to curb obesity,” Bloomberg declared yesterday. “It’s certainly not the last step that lots of cities are going to take, and we believe that it will help save lives.” Then he did an end-zone dance.
Opponents to the ban do exist and have six months before the rule goes into effect to fight it, and could attempt to take the measure to court. “This is not the end,” said a spokesman for New Yorkers for Beverage Choices. “By imposing this ban, the board has shown no regard for public opinion or the consequences to businesses in the city.”
But Bloomberg can’t hear you haters. “I just spent roughly $600 million of my own money to try to stop the scourge of tobacco, and I’m looking for another cause,” Bloomberg said, reminding everyone that he can literally bury people under his piles of money. “I don’t know that [the opposition] is well-funded,” he added, before throwing out the mostly rhetorical question, “How much were they spending again?”
Silence. “Thank you,” Bloomberg said. “Next question.”
