Senators propose lowering alcohol tax

Its funny how the GOP only cares about the federal deficit when a Democrat is the POTUS.

 

Trickle down economics didn't work in the 80's and now its just used as an excuse to give the GOP donors a huge tax cut. Don't worry you will feel the effects in about 2 years.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

I thought beeradvocate was the one place I could go and not here political debates, oh well. And I like the idea of lowering beer taxes in theory, but in practice I think it won't affect the price of beer or the quantity people purchase, it'll just increase profits for big beer and decrease tax money that is necessary for public aide and unnecessary tanks. Maybe increase Bill Gates' taxes a couple points instead? Just a thought.

 

In general, no business pays taxes. Their customers pay it for them.

Tax revenue is not a static computation where higher rates = more revenue. or lower rates = less revenue.

Increasing tax rates does not reduce the deficit and lowering tax rates does not increase the deficit. Spending less than tax revenue reduces it; spending more than tax revenue increases it.

Tax revenue goes up as the economy grows, even if you lower tax rates.

Tax revenue shrinks when the economy shrinks, even if you raise tax rates.

Lowering tax rates tends to stimulate the economy, but not perfectly.

Raising tax rates tends to depress the economy, but not universally.

IOW, it's complicated and anyone who makes pronouncements otherwise is merely demagoguing.

 

I'd like to see a dollar tax on every serving of beer....

 

Why? That sounds ridiculous. Unless your goal is to stunt the growth of the beer industry, put people out of work, and force breweries to take shortcuts in how they produce beer

 

Not a good idea. Would represent a shift of tax burden from the wealthy to the poor as a percentage of overall tax revenue. We need that shift to go the other direction.

Edit: Unless that dollar is strictly budgeted for living expenses of the bartender. Like, you know, a tip.

 

And, if business is good businesses invest at any current rate of taxation. Smart taxation has been a universal and perfect vexation supposed conservatives and progressives have struggled with climbing through time. It is certain (with taxation), as you state, that the unknowns are greater than the knowns. The current scheme is fairly clear.

 

Source?

 

LOL...No

 

@Biff_Tannen from Beer Advocate

 

Not to drag things like facts into a rhetoric laden landscape but unemployment rates are inversely proportional to tax rates when graphed against each other. With all else being equal on a sin tax like this one, it's just a cost that everyone in the business chalks up as "the cost of doing business". I don't see it really helping the 3BBL brewhouse down the street either. The only breweries who will see the maximum benefits are the larger ones.

 

Well, yeah, but they're the ones who see the maximum benefits of lots of things, since, you know, they're larger.

 

Too much "fake news" in this thread, I'm going to another one.

 

I don't see anyone passing the savings along in this case though.

 

If you think about it a bit, the market faced by the larger brewers is a lot more price sensitive than that by your local neighborhood brewpub. I don't see anyone passing the savings along, but if anyone does, it is more likely to be the large brewers who do.