@Dutchess_III – no – the point is you don’t know what you’re talking about [beer], and should not presume to know what is “necessary” for me or anyone else. Speak for yourself.
Visiting forests, church tithes, traveling outside your own home town, reading books at the library, creating and selling art, patronage of art, making and drinking craft beer, eating fine food, eating fast food, buying craft beer, buying cherry pie – necessities? Should we tax those too?
@stranger_in_a_strange_land – interesting. I thought hops can be picked by hand, just like cotton, but I was led to believe these days most hop growers use stationary picking machines or other mechanical devises. I have been told that by a guy who I buy supplies from at my local homebrew supply shop. Of course people are still involved.
In any case, the Harvard review talked about under 3000 jobs being created across 50 states. Even if that is true (which I find dubious) the bill is still about increasing profit to the business. Hiring more people is… “not a necessity.”
OP’s Q: ”Do you think that this beer stimulus will be enough to bring the US out of the recession?”
No.
I think the WSJ article is more about selling Wall Street Journals than anything.
And I’m not all fired up about the bill expanding the definition of microbrewery from 2M to 6M barrels annually, so that they (read: Dog Fish and a few others) can “compete with the big boys”. What is not mentioned is that the smallest craft brewers will then not be able to compete within their own expanded sector (perhaps) causing the very familiar spiral of consolidation and closures until – ultimately – we have again only three brewers.
That’s what I think.