Stan Geiger

New Federal Tax Hike on the Way?

I caught a quick blurb on KJRH news the other day. It said Washington is considering a tax increase on beer, wine and booze. If I remember correctly, the tax increase would be two bucks on a case of beer, 46 cents on a bottle of wine and 42 cents on a bottle of liquor.

There is much to say here.

I guess I could start with the great one's campaign pledge that only people in the top 5 percent would see a tax increase. He said the top 5 percent would "pay a little more" while 95 percent of the population would actually see tax cuts.

A few weeks ago, a federal tax increase of 62 cents per pack on cigarettes went into effect. The stats say 20 percent of the population smokes. Try as hard as you like, but I don't think you can squeeze 20 percent of the population into 5 percent. It's a mathematical impossibility.

Now Washington politicians are reportedly contemplating another hike in the so-called "sin tax" realm. I wonder how much of the population drinks. Not how much of the population is plagued by alcoholism, but how much has a nip from time to time.

I'd say the percentages are considerable. I can count 4 liquor stores in business within a 2-mile radius of my residence. If there is enough business to support that situation, a whole lot of people drink---at least a little bit.

Obama, by signing the cigarette tax into law, has already shown himself to be a big fat liar. If he signs the beer, wine and booze tax into law, he's a big fat liar twice.

Another thing about this proposal is that it clearly shows how regressive taxation has become in this country. I mean some guy that makes 20 grand a year goes into a liquor store and buys a case of beer and he pays an additional $2 in federal tax. Meanwhile, a rich dick that makes half a million a year goes into a liquor store and buys a $300 bottle of vintage port for his wine cellar and he pays an additional 46 cents in federal tax.

Sound fair to you?

And then there is the matter of taxing taxes---around these parts at least. If this tax was passed into law, and I went into a liquor store to buy a case of beer, I would pay an extra two bucks for the case because of the federal tax. But it wouldn't end there. I would also be faced with the 8.517 percent state and local sales tax. And that would add another 17 cents to the purchase.

It is failed logic. Let's tax and tax and tax, let's keep chipping away at people until they can't make a living for themselves, then create some gubment program---which creates the need for even more tax revenue---to help them out.

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