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Does Bill Nelson Want to Raise Taxes on Your Alcohol?

By Kyle Munzenrieder in Politicks

Tuesday, Jun. 2 2009 @ 10:17AM

I was reading I Can Has Cheezburger in my RSS Reader when I saw this ad below all the LOLcats. Apparently, Sen. Bill Nelson wants to raise the taxes on my wine by 233 percent! The ad leads to the Freedom Work's website, where it explains "a massive new tax hike" to pay for health care, which also includes a 145 percent tax increase on a six-pack of beer and 19 percent on liquor. Those damn D.C. bastards, trying to price me out of getting ass-drunk every night!

The plan comes out of the Senate Finance Committee, on which Nelson sits.

Though the 23 percent and 145 percent numbers seem huge, the ax would come out to about $0.48 on a six-pack of beer (or $0.08 a beer), $0.49 on a bottle of wine, and $0.40 per fifth of liquor.

Should anyone really be surprised? When taxes on cigarettes are hiked, no one makes a major stir, so of course the next step is to raise taxes on alcohol. And maybe they should be raised, considering no one has ever killed themselves or others thanks to driving while nicotine-buzzed. Nor has smoking ever played a major part in date rape, domestic violence, or winding up sleeping on the street face-down in your own puke.

Or maybe I'm just bitter about all of these cigarette taxes that everyone quietly supports. Maybe I need a smoke to settle down.