Debate is heating up in Washington over a potential soda tax that could raise several billion dollars to cover the cost of healthcare reform. The tax – a penny on every ounce – would add 50 percent to the price of a two-liter. In a recent interview with Men’s Health President Obama said he’s open to the idea because it could help improve Americans’ health. Soda consumption is linked to obesity.

Unsurprisingly, here’s what the chief executive at Coca-Cola had to say about that:

I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink.

The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson defends the tax, and adds this take:

The soda tax, especially, is a flat tax on drinks that are both more likely to be consumed by poor minorities and will cost them a higher proportion of their income. But I can sleep knowing that, since the money generated from the sin tax is going to pay for Medicaid and health care subsidies for less fortunate Americans, anyway.

The idea of raising the cost of a 12-pack of soda by 45 percent is going over like a lead balloon in Congress, but Obama’s head of the Centers for Disease Control Thomas Frieden has supported junk food taxes in the past.

One study disputes Obama’s presupposition that the tax would reduce obesity:

A report from the Mercatus Center for Public Policy determined that soda would require a 1,200 percent tax – making a can $9 – in order to achieve a measurable decrease in weight.

Man, we really like our Coke.