You love the blog, so subscribe to the Beervana Podcast on iTunes or Soundcloud today!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Massive Federal Beer Tax?

If I'm reading this right, we may have very serious trouble ahead. USA Today is reporting that Congress is looking to raise taxes on alcohol, including what looks like a massive hike on beer:

Details of the proposed beer tax are described in a Senate Finance Committee document that will be used to brief lawmakers Wednesday at a closed-door meeting.

Taxes on wine and hard liquor would also go up. And there might be a new tax on soda and other sugary drinks blamed for contributing to obesity. No taxes on diet drinks, however.

Beer taxes would go up by 48 cents a six-pack, wine taxes would rise by 49 cents per bottle, and the tax on hard liquor would increase by 40 cents per fifth. Proceeds from the new taxes would help cover an estimated 50 million uninsured Americans.

I'm not always the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to numbers, but my back-of-the-envelope calculation puts this at $26.45 per barrel. That's a very scary number.

10 comments:

  1. That right! I told you that alcohol drinkers are next on the list after the smokers. Now that smoking is on the decline gotta find fatter cows to slaughter.

    I suggest you'll be on the losing end of this "battle for competing interests" this time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so tired of people that have absolutely no self accountability!

    -R.J. Reynolds MADE me smoke! THEY got me hooked!

    -Coke Classic MADE me fat! It's THEIR fault!

    -Widmer turned me into an alcoholic! It's their fault I drink so many Drifters!

    This is just another Liberal driven tax hike because they really think all of us are feeding into their whole "Let's make every American feel dependent upon the government" B.S. Hah!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ralph, you really were radicalized by Oregon's proposed cigarette tax increase, weren't you (never mind that it failed)?

    DOSiR, let's not descend into partisan politics, whatsay? As I have always maintained, the love of beer is no place for politics. In front of the beer engine, we are all brothers and sisters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll agree to that... my main point though was just the though that we need government or someone else to make all of our decisions for us... or that we all should keep blaming something or someone else for all of our own self inflicted faults... I just always love what they say they will use the tax revenue for... and never do. The downsides to the tax by far exceed any positive.. some good reading about that at the beeradvocate as well. Also less beer will be purchased... thus the government getting either the same or less revenue from it. I wouldn't buy nearly as much.

    But, after a few brews... it's hard to leave the politics alone brother.. lol ;-))

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not radicalized, just more of an over-dramatization.

    It appears the government is going to go for more sin taxes rather than live within their means. Because they are easy to sell.

    The smokers are the first shoe, drinkers are the next shoe...or we could use the 'foot in the door' analogy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I wish Congress would look to other products to tax rather than the ones they already have plenty of taxes on. So called "sin" taxes keep going up and up. Why not tax items that have little or no tax but still are consumed by the masses? Tax Like milk, tea or coffee. Leave our beer alone, we already get enough taxes on that. Higher taxes on beer will only mean more people will start to homebrew to get around the tax rule. Next thing you know they will impose a huge tax on water. Washington likes nothing better than to give away trillions of dollars for their pet projects then raise taxes on everyone to pay for it while they conveniently forget to pay their taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, just as a reality check for the firebrand libertarians, it's not exactly like US taxes are putting Americans in the poorhouse.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ahh the refuge of relativism.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Instead of beer and politics... let's make it beer and politicians. Let's all band together and send a bunch of craft brews to all political persons as possible. Perhaps after a few they will see the light! :-)

    ReplyDelete