International Beverage Company

The rationale behind all alcohol control policies since the 18th Amendment, which established Prohibition, is governments' attempt to balance the overwhelming economic good of the legal manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol versus any negative unintended consequences that occur as a result. The most important word is "control." With the 21st Amendment, the U.S. created a regulated, "controlled," tiered system of state regulation where each state has the power and authority to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. This model, by intentional design, is supposed to interfere with the Commerce Clause because the economics of commerce alone cannot and will not balance the two issues.

All of Timothy Carney's arguments against H.R. 5034, the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act, are based on the economics of the wholesale tier and the assertion that the present proponents of destroying this control mechanism are not doing so for their own financial gain as they try to make the wholesale tier the villains. Carney asks "Who is getting rich?" off of the legislation. The answer is that anything that has to do with alcohol at the supplier, wholesale and retail level is big business. A check of all three tiers' financial statements should offset his wholesale-greed argument alone. Unfortunately, medical cost, insurance and other expenses along with death, destruction and heartache are big businesses also. States allow the wholesale tier protection and guarantee their economic success by statute in exchange for a balance.

History has shown that cheap, abundant, unregulated alcohol does not benefit a society. It does, however, benefit the alcohol retail and manufacture/supplier tiers at the expense of society as a whole. These suppliers and retailers are not "bad people." They just need to be controlled. As long as the wholesale tier is being controlled also, for the right reasons, this model is valid public policy.



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