BREAKING NEWS: Direct Shipment of Wine soon legal in all 50 States!
US Postal Truck
By a wide margin and significant support across both parties, the 29th Amendment has passed by an overwhelming majority. After over 70 years of inconsistent, special interest regulations, direct shipment of wine in all 50 States of the Union will be the law of the land as of January 1, 2013.
This stunning turn of events was initiated as a means of ensuring the US Postal Service was profitable and self sustaining without the need to layoff significant personnel or curtail major services. This allows the US Postal Service to deliver direct shipments of wine and beer now on a level field of competition with other private carriers.
This new legislation came on the heals of the historic passage of the 28th Amendment just three months ago (See information box below) by overwhelming majority vote of the American people.
Details – Direct Shipment of Wine
The 29th Amendment repealed the 21st Amendment, which gave each State the right to individually regulate alcohol distribution. The States still have flexibility, but now businesses and consumers have a consistent and fair system. There is no longer pressure from special interest groups to adhere and strengthen the exclusive 3-tiered distrbution of alcohol. This new direct shipment of wine benefits wineries, the States, and most importantly, the American consumer. Common sense and the will of the people have finally prevailed.
Here are some of the reasons behind the historic legislation based on independent studies:
- The direct shipment of wine by wineries and retailers would have little adverse impact on the current 3-tiered model since medium to large wineries logistically still require this distribution model.
- Significant job creation would take place as small to medium wineries add personnel to support increased sales of their wines through direct shipment. In addition to robust job creation, costs would be greatly reduced as regulations would be consistent across all 50 States.
- No increase in alcohol abuse is anticipated since any direct shipment would require an adult signature and ID – no alcohol would be left without proper ID and signature. Hefty fines or loss of license would result for infractures by individuals and/or distribution firms.
- States will also benefit significantly from the new legislation as they will no longer need oversight of inconsistent regulations. Further, States have the right to set their own license fees and collect any State taxes due. License fees will be self regulating since higher, unreasonable fees will result in higher loss of tax revenues.
- Consumers are the big winners in this new legislation. Competition will ensure that consumers have access to the best prices and the most selection. This is the way capitalism is supposed to work.
Information on the 28th Amendment
After collecting millions of signatures from the American people, the 28th Amendment to the Constitution was inacted. This overturns the earlier Supreme Court ruling in favor of Citizens United as well as Buckley v Valeo that allowed corporations and special interests to skew legislation in their favor by funding the election or re-election of members of Congress. This grass roots effort started with sites such as GetMoneyOut , United Republic, cities and towns such as LA banning the practice, as well as Members of Congress such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who initiated the Saving American Democracy Amendment petition.
After enacting the legislation, the day to day partisan bickering and ideological filibusters began to subside. The Federal and State governments are now more productive and working for the American people, not the lobbyists. As expected, there are different often opposing views on how to make and keep this Nation great, but now Members of Congress are actually listening to each other, moderating their stance, and real progress is being made to increase jobs, reduce costs (while ensuring the American people are duly protected), and rebuild the middle class. Finally, we are on the road to sustained recovery……
If only the above was true.…..
No … although four Senators are suggesting that the Postal Service should be allowed to deliver alcohol, 109 Members of Congress are backing legislation that would recind Heald v Graham in favor of special interests, which would in effect reverse the progress made in direct shipment over the last 10 years and negate any benefit should the US Postal Service be allowed to ship alcohol.
No… the Federal Government is still completely deadlocked in partisan bickering. Instead of working for the American people who elected them, they continue to address symptoms rather than solving problems.
No …. direct shipments of wine from wineries or retailers are still constrained in several States AND in those States that allow shipment, the regulations vary state to state. Here a great example of regulation that benefits only a few while raising costs and putting a damper on jobs for the majority. Consistent legislation across all 50 states would benefit the States, wineries, retailers, and most importantly, the American consumer. And, although the monopoly would be gone, the current 3-tiered distribution model would still be necessary and important to medium to large volume wine and beer producers.
I’d like your opinions …….
NOTE: The results are posted on the Winery Survey Results page.
Read MoreH.R. 1161 – An Oxymoron?
In an era when:
- Unemployment is at historical high levels and has remained high for over two years,
- The lynchpin of consumer wealth (housing) for the American middle class is in a prolonged slump with over 22% of home owners under water,
- The top 1% of the population garners 40% of the wealth – the middle class is shrinking while those in poverty substantially increased,
- Debt continues to spiral out of control,
- It is getting harder and harder for Americans to afford or access quality healthcare,
- Infrastructure across the country is crumbling,
- Trading partner currencies are being manipulated,
- The banking industry continues to exercise policies that could easily cause another worldwide recession,
- We continue to engage in two wars, and …
- Fossil fuel based energy continues to hold long term economic growth hostage,
What does 109 of our fine representatives in congress focus on? You guess it!
The Community Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act of 2011 (HR 1161) – introduced by Representative Jason Chavetz (R) of Utah as a follow on to HR 5034 – a piece of legisation that will not solve, rectify or mitigate any of the above.
According to the Statemans Journal, the special interests supporting this bill (the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America), depict this as “an attempt to rescue state and local control over alcohol sale from online alcohol sellers, big box retailers, international alcohol suppliers and professional plaintiffs that want federal courts to allow them to sell ever-larger volumes of alcohol at low or below-cost prices – a trend they see as leading to social ills such as more underage drinking.
Why an oxymoron? An oxymoron is defined as “a figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side”. In this case, the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America don’t have a problem in increasing the volume of sales of alcohol or providing pricing promotions where it serves their interests, they simply want to ensure that if volumes and revenues are going to increase it has to flow through them.
The intent of this bill is to unravel the Granholm vs. Heald Supreme Court decision that disallowed state laws that thrash the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution in favor of special in-state treatment of wineries. This bill would ensure that when unfair, special interest state laws are enacted, they cannot be challenged, keeping that the current 3-tired monopoly remains in tact.
One thing this bill would do is decimate the small wine producers who do not produce sufficient volume to get the attention of large distributors and instead depend very heavily on tasting room and wine club sales. This would effectively eliminate out of state wine club sales. So at the very least this bill would increase unemployment for small producers.
I am not going to restate all the facts about this bill – this has already been done on countless sites such as Free the Grapes, Vinography, Stop1161, Fermentation, as well as countless other sites.
- But I will state the obvious:
This is a special interest bill that serves a small minority that are desperate to keep a monopoly in place
It has nothing to do with states rights .. they already have them courtesy of the 21st amendment
It has nothing to do with keeping alcohol out of the reach of minors
It has nothing to do with ensuring sales taxes are paid
And just to let you know I am not focusing on any particular party, of the 109 co-sponsors approximately 42% are Democrat and 58% Republican.
My question to the 109 co-sponsors would be:
- Did you read the bill or simply sign based on contributions and/or quid pro quo favors?
- Do you understand the special interest provisions and the harm it can cause to small wineries and consumer choice?
If you haven’t read the bill, dah … read it!
Finally, how about focusing on the real problems facing this nation that are in the best interest of all Americans?
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