Banning Big Sodas: Nanny State or Smart Move?

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban sodas bigger than 16 ounces from being sold in New York City (with a few exceptions), and as the AP points out, he's likely to get his way considering he appoints everyone on the city's Board of Health. A sampling of reaction:

• Jim Treacher, Daily Caller: Just more nanny state nonsense, he writes. "What’s the point of being mayor if he can't exert his will on your personal choices arbitrarily? Face it, Bloomberg can run your life better than you can. And if you don’t like it, you can just move somewhere else."

• Daniel Fisher, Forbes: He thinks it's a bad idea, too, but for a different reason. There's no "plausible scientific explanation for why it will work," he writes. It sounds fine in theory, but "the record shows that soda is just the latest villain in an evolving series of studies that try to explain why low-income people tend to be obese, ranging from fast foods to candy to larger portion sizes."
• Sarah Kliff, Washington Post: She likes it because it has a "decent chance at actually working." Unlike previous measures such as soda taxes, this one focuses specifically on portion size, which "has consistently been shown to affect how much we eat."
• Coca-Cola: Shockingly, the company does not support the idea. "The people of New York City are much smarter than the New York City Health Department believes," it says in a statement.

(More Michael Bloomberg stories.)