Last month, President Barack Obama signed a highly publicized Executive Order demanding a government-wide review of existing laws to remove regulations that stifle job creation and hamper America’s economy. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is considering a new alcohol labeling requirement that would devastate America’s small brewers, hampering their ability to grow and hire new employees—and even to continue operating.
Big producers of alcoholic beverages are supporting a proposal before the federal Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) that would require manufacturers of alcoholic beverages to list the nutritional content of their products, such as calories, alcohol content, and carbohydrates.
Supporters of the proposal claim that it will help provide consumers with more information to make better choices, but the result will be an increase in production costs could force some brewers of craft beers to close their doors while depriving others of the funds they need to grow their business—and hire more workers. This will mean fewer varieties of beer, more expensive products, and fewer jobs throughout the entire nation, as every state is home to small breweries.
Larger breweries will have little problem absorbing the cost of the new rule. In addition to the economies of scale they enjoy from large-scale production, major brewers only produce a few limited beer lines. Having fewer products limits the cost of providing content analysis and labeling.
Craft brewers on the other hand, produce a wider variety of beers, and far fewer barrels of each one, so they will struggle with the cost of testing and labeling the nutritional contents of their many beers. In its 2008 comments on the TTB labeling requirement proposal, the Brewers Association, which represents more than 1,400 U.S. small brewers, estimated that the annual cost of compliance with the proposed labeling requirement could be as high as $18,000 for brewers producing less than 1,000 barrels a year and more than $350,000 for brewers making more than 100,000 barrels a year.
Consumer choice will suffer, as the makers of many popular beers will be affected. A small brewery, according to the Brewers Association, is one that produces fewer than 2 million barrels a year. To put this in perspective, Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams, produces about 1.8 million barrels a year. The next highest producer, Sierra Nevada of California, produces just over 700,000 barrels a year. Other well-known craft brewers produce substantially fewer barrels, including Louisiana’s Abita Brewing Co. in and Delaware’s Dogfish Head Brewery, both of which produce less than 100,000 barrels a year.
Craft brewers compete with the well-established large beer companies by putting their money and staff time into high-quality ingredients and boots-on-the ground marketing. The added costs from the labeling requirement will reduce the number and variety of beers that small brewers can bring to the market, according to the Brewers Association.
The added costs may also force small brewers to reduce costs elsewhere, such as by decreasing their output, firing staff, or exiting certain markets entirely. For some small brewers living on the thinnest profit margins, the new requirements may sound the death knell for their business. Consumers will lose out by having fewer options. State and local economies will also lose when jobs and businesses disappear because of the increased regulatory costs.
Over the last two decades, the United States has seen an explosion in the craft beer movement. Thousands of new small breweries have opened, creating thousands of new jobs and a vast multitude of beers to suit every particular taste, including those who desire a healthier beer, environmentally friendly beer, or for those who are allergic to certain ingredients. All of this has been in response to consumer demand. By the same token, if consumers want to know the calorie and carbohydrate content of their beers they will demand it and savvy brewers will respond.
As small brewers thrive, they provide states with tax revenue and jobs. Regulations that drive up the cost of production could bring that to a halt. If President Obama truly wants to reduce the burden of government and create an environment where small businesses can grow, he ought to urge the TTB to get out of the way and let consumers decide whether or not they want nutritional labeling on their beer.
Peter Shumlin, the newly elected governor of Vermont, has a plan for health-care reform: Rather than repeal it, he wants to supercharge it. His state will set up an exchange, and then, as soon as possible, apply for a waiver that allows it to turn the program into a single-payer system. You can read a summary of the plan here (Word file). I spoke with Shumlin this morning, and a lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Ezra Klein: The report (PDF) prepared by Dr. William Hsiao offered three options for Vermont: single payer, a strong public option and a form of private-public single payer. My understanding is that you're backing the third option. What separates it from a traditional single-payer system?
Peter Shumlin: Single payer means something different to everyone. The way I define it is that health care is a right and not a privilege. It follows the individual and not the employer. And it’s publicly financed. The only difference between single-payer one and single-payer three in Hsiao's report is that in single-payer three, the actual adjudication of payment is contracted to an existing insurance entity. So the state doesn't have to set up a new bureaucracy to run it. His modeling suggests that’d be more economical. It's a minute difference.
EK: And why go to a single-payer system at all?
PS: In Vermont, this is all about cost containment. There are 625,000 people in Vermont. We were spending $2.5 billion on health care a decade ago. Now we’re above $5 billion. And we project we’ll be spending a billion dollars more in 2014. This is where everyone has failed in health-care reform. And this will go after three of our main drivers of costs.
First, Vermont spends 8 cents on every dollar on administrative costs, just chasing the money around. That’s a huge waste of money. Second, we’ll use technology to conquer waste. You'll get a Vermont medical card, and everyone’s medical records will be on that card, so you’ll go into a doctor’s office and they’ll know what the last doctor did to you. That helps avoid duplication of services. And the last piece, the most challenging, is remaking the payment system so providers are paid for making you healthy, not for doing the most procedures.
EK: Single-payer systems often lose on the ballot and in the legislature. No state has successfully managed to pass one into law, much less implement it. And the objection that usually stands in the way of these projects is that I'm happy with my health-care insurance, and I don't trust the government to create something new and put me into it. How do you answer that?
PS: I suspect I’m the only politician in America who won an election in this last cycle with TV ads saying I was going to try to pass the first single-payer system in America. This election was a confirmation of my judgment that Vermonters are tired of enriching pharmaceutical companies and insurers and medical equipment makers at the expense of their family members. The reality in Vermont is that there are not very many Vermonters who are happy with the current system. We’re losing our rural providers. Our small hospitals are struggling. And Vermonters are lowering their coverage and paying more and more for it.
EK: How will the funding work? Right now, a lot of money comes from employers. What happens to their share?
PS: Where health care has failed is in designing a cost containment mechanism that works. That’s the really hard part of our job. So I’m asking us to spend the next 12 months designing the tools for cost containment. Once we do, we'll figure out how to structure the way we pay for it.
EK: One of the things you asked of Dr. Hsiao was to preserve provider incomes. How can you do that while cutting costs? At some point, doesn't lower spending also mean fewer doctors or hospitals or lower incomes?
PS: The reason Vermont has the opportunity to be the lab for a different kind of change is that we don’t have a lot of high-paid physicians in Vermont. We have a lot of low-paid physicians. We have rural providers who’re making less than they did when they graduated from medical school. Our cost driver is not that we have a lot of physicians running around in Mercedes-Benzes. It’s waste in the system.
EK: How will this interact with other systems? Let's say I have Kaiser Permanente. I come to Vermont and break my leg. What happens?
PS: Nothing different than what happens right now. You’d go to one of our providers' offices, and they’d bill Kaiser for that one. No different than if you break a leg in France or Switzerland. Radical as this seems to Americans, the rest of the world has figured this out and gotten it right. We keep getting it wrong, and we’re paying for it.
benchcraft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
benchcraft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
bench craft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
bench craft company sales
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
bench craft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
benchcraft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
bench craft company sales
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
bench craft company sales
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
benchcraft company scam
Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Drunk Dialing FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and <b>...</b>
epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Drunk Dialing FAIL.
Washington Extra – Royal <b>news</b> | Analysis & Opinion |
As is increasingly the case, the United States is finding that talking pro-democracy is one thing. Dealing with the aftermath of uprisings another.
Miguel Marquez Beaten In Bahrain: ABC <b>News</b> Correspondent Attacked <b>...</b>
Riots have rocked the Arab world for weeks now, and attacks on Western journalists reporting from the midst of the fray have been rampant. Reporting from Bahrain's Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama today, ABC News Correspondent ...
No comments:
Post a Comment