The CARE Act: Another Reason for Anti-Acronym Bias

Here at Reason, we have a longstanding skepticism about bills with cutesy acronyms, and occasional Reason contributor Jacob Grier clearly shares that bias in a recent Washington Examiner piece:

As a general rule, the cuter the acronym politicians attach to a bill, the worse that bill actually is. Such is the case with the CARE Act, a.k.a. The Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act, currently before Congress. The bill is backed by wine and beer wholesalers who benefit from a restrictive three-tier alcohol distribution system and opposed by, well, pretty much everyone else in the alcohol industry…

The law would benefit only wholesalers, who hate seeing a bottle of wine, beer, or liquor slip into their states without collecting their cut. Wholesalers have contributed more than $2 million to congressmen, earning them 136 co-sponsors of the bill in the House.

The CARE Act is a clear sop to wholesalers at the expense of everyone else. At a time when buyers of countless other products enjoy the long tail of diverse options available for order online, wholesalers want to trap alcohol consumers in a 1930s model of distribution. 

More on the CARE Act here.