More News of the Weird
By Mark Tumarkin
More News of the Weird…Politics is weird, alcohol politics is weirder….
<editor's note> The following is takend from the Nando Times http://www.nandotimes.com/politics/story/363744p-2945251c.html </editor's note>
Congress considers cutting beer tax By DANNY FREEDMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (April 16, 2002 3:22 p.m. EDT) - Cutting the tax on beer in half could leave Americans with "a $1.7 billion hangover" in trying to replenish lost federal funds, opponents of a bill being considered in Congress said Tuesday. Millie I. Webb, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said a reduction in the tax of $18 per barrel - that's about 33 cents per six-pack - would also have "dire and deadly consequences for adults and youth with respect to drunk driving, underage drinking and alcohol problems in general." Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., introduced the measure last year. "It's an unfair tax that targets lower- to middle-class Americans," said Jennifer Hall, his spokeswoman. She said that two-thirds of the beer consumed in the country is bought by people earning less than $45,000 per year. The bill's opponents, speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday, said the last beer tax increase in 1991 was in part responsible for saving the lives of more than 600 minors every year. The proposed tax cut, coming at a time when the federal government is again running budget deficits, would leave taxpayers with "a $1.7 billion hangover trying to plug the revenue gap this bill triggers," said Art Jaeger, associate direct of the Consumer Federation of America. Hall said the campaign to cut the tax has lost momentum as the nation deals with a weak economy and the war on terrorism. The bill is H.R. 1305. And while Politics is weird, Economics is weirder still….. From the Real Beer Page http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-001707.html Drink your way to success? Economics professor finds the more you drink, the more you earn APR 18, 2002 - An economics professor in Canada has found that people who drink more than average are also more likely to earn more. As a result, Chris Auld of the University of Calgary was awarded more funding to research the link between drinking alcoholic beverages and earnings. He calls it "the alcohol-income puzzle." Auld emphasizes that his preliminary finding are not meant to suggest it is possible to drink your way to corporate advancement. He said the reasons for the correlation could be the stress of high-paying jobs driving people to drink or that more sociable people are more likely to achieve career success. "The puzzle is why are we finding this," he said. In an interview in the Calgary Sun, he joked that his extra funding will allow him to "buy more rounds at the bar."