Our nation’s lawmakers are proposing that beer-drinkers should pay $2 more for each case of beer they buy in an effort to fund universal healthcare. Obviously, that’s not all there is to it, and no one thinks that a beer tax, all by itself, can magically make enough money to provide every American with healthcare, a new house, a pony, and their own personal Starbucks. And yet, from the Chippewa Herald …

• Details of the proposed beer tax are described in a Senate Finance Committee document distributed to lawmakers before a closed-door meeting Wednesday. Senators are focusing on how to pay for expanding health insurance for an estimated 50 million uninsured Americans, a cost that could range to some $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
• You can’t raise that from beer money alone. … Taxes on wine and hard liquor would also go up.
• And there might be a new tax on soda and other sugary drinks blamed for contributing to obesity. A tax of 3 cents per 12-ounce drink would raise about $50 billion over 10 years, according to congressional estimates. Diet drinks, however, wouldn’t be taxed.

As I’ve said before, I’m willing to pay more for things like beer if it’ll help fund healthcare, but it seems like pop (aka soda) could be taxed a tad higher because a) it’s so freaking cheap to begin with, and b) it contains enough sugar to give a Clydesdale horse diabetes – that we all, as taxpayers, must pay for.