VIDEO: NY Mayor Bloomberg Discusses Beverage Ban on CBS

New York City Michael Bloomberg called the Mississippi bill banning counties from posting calorie counts and capping the size of beverages a "farce," in an interview that was broadcast live today, March 13, 2013 on CBS THIS MORNING (7:00 AM-9:00 AM) on the CBS Television Network. Bloomberg told co-host Gayle King and CBS News Senior Business and Economics Correspondent Anthony Mason, "How can somebody try to pass a law that deliberately says we can't improve the lives of our citizens? …It's farce."

During his appearance, Bloomberg also discussed the plan to improve language skills for low-income children with Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Angel Taveras. Watch the interview in its entirety below!

Below are excerpts from the interview:

KING: Good morning, congratulations to you, Mr. Mayor. We're going to find out what cool thing you did in just a second, but I want to start with you, Mayor Bloomberg, because it's been two days since the judge ruled against the ban on sugary drinks. It's been described as a "stinging" defeat for you.

BLOOMBERG: Stinging?

KING: Stinging defeat. So I'm wondering did you have any advance notice that it was going to go down that way, and were you surprised that it went to the last minute?

BLOOMBERG: If you read the law, the judge couldn't be more wrong. We assume we will prevail in court, but I think, Gayle, this is another example. We have a worldwide, nationwide problem on obesity. This year, more people will die from overeating than from starvation-first time in the history of the world. The federal government, we asked them to do something. They did nothing. We asked the President to ban the use of food stamps for beverages that hurts your health, rather than just things that are healthy. They did nothing. We asked the state, they do nothing. The city tries to do something. And I think that's exactly what's happening across this country, and in fact around the world. It's cities that are doing anything, so that's the reason the challenge, and Angel is a good example. He's coming up with real-world, practical ideas transferable to other cities but they will make people in this country, in his case in Providence, but also around the country, much better.

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