Governing magazine reports on Mexico’s passage of junk food and soda taxes and what it could mean for the U.S.

Actually, the legislation, which took effect in January, created an 8 percent tax on all junk food that contains more than 275 calories per 100 grams and a new peso-per-liter tax — about 10 percent — on sugar-sweetened drinks. The ostensible goal is to attack the alarming obesity epidemic in Mexico, which recently passed the U.S. in rates of overweight residents. As in the States, Mexican businesses and politicians were sharply divided over the tax.

The food police in this country would love to do the same thing.

Policy wonks in the U.S. are watching that closely. If the policy does have a discernible impact on health, then health experts in the U.S. hope that might help tip the scales for soda and junk food taxes here.

It is typical Leftist policy. Rather than respecting the freedom to choose what one eats — and then bear the responsibility through insurance premiums that reflect the risk — Leftists prefer to force people to conform to government-approved eating by imposing a penalty — in the form of a tax — on behavior.