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Via Matt Yglesias, here’s a chart from a recent Dept. of Agriculture study suggesting that a 20% tax on sugary soft drinks would reduce overall consumption of said beverages and thereby reduce our net calorie intake from all beverages:

By assuming that 1 pound of body fat has about 3,500 calories, and assuming all else remains equal, the daily calorie reductions would translate into an average reduction of 3.8 pounds over a year for adults and 4.5 pounds over a year for children.

Not so fast, I say. Even assuming that all the assumptions in the report are correct, all it does is show that our net calorie intake from beverages would, on average, go down. But if you switch to diet soda, it’s pretty likely that you’ll just make up the calories somewhere else. In fact, if this study is correct, it’s possible that you might increase your total calorie intake.

I’d actually be interested in some large state imposing a tax like this purely for research purposes, and since I don’t drink sugared soda I’d be happy to nominate California. We need the money anyway. But my guess is that the results would disappointing. People might end up swilling less high-fructose corn syrup, but they’d probably just eat more corn nuts to make up for it.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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