Beer tax – Assemblyman Jim Beall proposes beer tax… again

Normally I try and refrain from using any sort of profanity on this website. I think there are other ways of conveying your message without the use of profanity but in this instance, there’s just no other way of saying it, this proposed beer tax is just bullshit!

California State Assemblyman Jim Beall, who once proposed a 1500% tax raise on beer, is back in the news. In an article he wrote in the San Jose Mercury News, Assemblyman Beall argues for a raise in beer tax to pay for alcohol related healthcare issues.

I understand their view. But they need to understand that all California taxpayers – including the one-third who don’t imbibe – are shelling out billions for alcohol’s role in soaring health costs, traffic accidents and fatalities, crime and incidences of fetal alcohol syndrome, the leading preventable cause of birth defects. The lifetime cost for a person with fetal alcohol syndrome can exceed $2 million in medical expenses, special education and productivity losses.

I cannot begin to put into words how pissed off I am regarding many of his arguments. If I had a choice, I would choose not to support the lifetime costs of some fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) baby. I wouldn’t. I’m not sorry about that either. Why should I help pay for someone else’s mistake? If some woman decided binge drinking was a good idea while she was pregnant, she alone should be held responsible for raising her FAS child.

It’s time for those responsible for alcohol’s devastating fallout to pay their fair share of the financial burden booze places on our society. If we can single out smokers by making them pay higher taxes for health costs they create, we should do likewise to breweries and their consumers.

Just for the record, I do not support the heavy taxation of tobacco companies to pay for the higher health costs smoking tobacco causes. In the end, the choice to smoke, or even drink, is a personal one. There is enough information out there showing direct correlations between numerous cancers and smoking, yet people choose to pick up smoking anyway. Why penalize one segment of an industry for a personal decision? If Assemblyman Beall wants to talk about fairness, he should penalize the entire industry of alcohol producers. That being said…

Why tax beer and not wine or distilled spirits? Beer sales represent 50 percent of the nation’s alcohol market and it is the alcoholic beverage of choice for underage drinkers. Beer also represents 81 percent of all alcohol in the United States consumed in hazardous amounts.

The wine and distilled spirits should be held just as accountable for the alcohol problem as much as Assemblyman Beall holds the beer industry accountable. I spoke to a co-worker of mine and we discussed wine culture as opposed to beer culture. I will go home and have a bottle of two of either my homebrew or my favorite beers with my dinner. It’s relaxing and enjoyable to me. Still, two bottles of beer is 24 ounces and no more than 7% alcohol in many cases. I get the occasional “you’re an alcoholic” from my friends for that. Yet, there are many people who will down a full bottle of wine (some even more) with their meals every. single. night. That’s 750ml, or approximately 25.36 ounces. While comparable in volume, keep in mind that most wines clock in at 12% – 15% alcohol. Nearly the same volume of alcohol, nearly twice the level of intoxication. For whatever reason, wine drinkers are able to hide their alcoholism under the guise of “sophistication” and and I think that’s bullshit.

The distilled spirits industry is no different and potentially even worse with their higher alcohol by volume (ABV), usually at the 40% mark. The fact remains that while distilled spirits costs more, a liter of vodka has much more “mileage” than an equivalent volume of beer. Put in simpler terms, a little bit of vodka can go a long way with regards to getting drunk. Let’s just cut the crap and call it how it is. Statistics are just numbers and can be easily manipulated by many to support their various causes. Hell, even Sex Panther works “60% of the time, all the time”.

One out of five people nationwide – age 12 to 20 – does binge drinking. Each day, 5,400 children under 16 down their first drink. Ten percent of the drinking public consumes 55 percent of the total volume of alcohol in America.

Over 90% of our nation’s wealth resides in the bank accounts and pockets of only 10% of out nation’s population. Why doesn’t Assemblyman Beall draft a bill or a law mandating those 10% to financially support the other 90%? Because it’s stupid and unfair, just like his proposed beer tax.

More than 90,000 college students annually are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. Consider alcohol’s role in the reported sexual assault of a teenage girl at a controversial March 2007 party in San Jose, attended by some members of a local community college baseball team, where liquor and beer were served to minors. In her lawsuit, the girl said she was intoxicated and unconscious during the assault.

Liqueurs have revolutionized recreational drinking much more than wine, beer and distilled spirits combined. Take a moment to remember the face you or your friends made whenever you took a shot of vodka, or any distilled spirit for that matter. You all looked like you were taking a really bad shit. It was never enjoyable. Now, mix one part vodka, one part triple sec, and one part lime/lemon juice and you have a kamikaze. Ahh, now we’re cooking with gas, you could probably kill a dozen of these a night, right? Probably have. A good bartender/mixologist will make you a drink that will be so sweet and taste so good that you won’t even notice you just had the equivalent of 4 shots of 40% alcohol. Next thing you know, it’s morning, you don’t know where you are, who you’re with or why your ass hurts. Yes, I am being overly dramatic but it’s to illustrate a point. Is it the alcohol’s fault you were sexually assaulted or the guy/gal lying next to you? Or maybe even the bartender? Even worse, at a party with minors, where were the parents in all of this? Doesn’t decency, morality and common sense start at the home?

Look, this will be a hotly debated topic in the weeks to come. Obviously I side with the beer industry in opposing this bill simply because it is unfair. It is unfair to point to one segment of an entire industry and ask them to foot the bill when they are not the sole source of the problem. If you’re going to draft a bill demonizing the abuse of alcohol because of all the alcohol related healthcare problems, then make every alcohol producer liable, not just the beer industry. Don’t blame the beer industry based solely on volume of sales, the world is more complex that numbers or statistics. Proper context is just as important.

The underlying issues that Assemblyman Beall is trying to address with this beer tax are important issues that must be dealt with but not in this manner. It is important to educate people about the potential dangers of alcohol and substance abuse but I feel there are other, deeper issues, that people must be taught and no bill, law or beer tax can do that. I’m sure Assemblyman Beall’s heart is in the right place but this execution isn’t. Speaking of heart, the number one cause of death in the United States is heart disease. Assemblyman Beall’s efforts would be better off drafting a “fast food tax” to mandating the fast food industry to foot the bill for all the healthcare related issues and problems fast food causes.

Don’t let your voice go unheard! Contact Assemblyman Beall here.

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