grantcart

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Sat Aug-16-08 01:33 AM
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Andrew McCain personally lobbies to stop Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Andrew McCain personally lobbies against The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Marin Institute, the Consumer Federation of America and Mothers Against Drunk Driving in their fight to reduce drunk driving

As evangelicals turn into the "Values Forum" they may want to consider that the Republican presumed nominee is not only the benificiary of one of the most lucrative beer distributors in the country but that the family intends to continue to personally run the company after the chairman of the board, Cindy McCain, lives in the White House(as they have refused to indicate that they intend to put their business interests into a blind trust). It will certainly make it easier for the Hemsley/McCain family to continue to fight the efforts of MADD and other groups to reduce drunk driving.

Read Andrew McCain's letter to Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau successfully stopping MADD's attempt to improve beer and alcohol labelling here:

http://www.ttb.treas.gov/nprm_comments/ttbnotice41/other/041200011.pdf

Los Angeles Times

McCain could have a conflict brewing

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-hensley22-2008jun22,0,457384.story?page=2&track=rss

A close look at Hensley shows that the company has opposed changes that critics of the beer industry say were intended to help Americans drink responsibly.

Hensley's lobbying activities have put the company at the center of a battle that has raged between the beer and liquor industries since Prohibition ended. Under federal law, liquor is taxed more heavily than beer and must contain a label that discloses alcohol content by percentage or proof. Beer and wine containers have no such disclosure requirement, though alcohol content varies widely.

Public interest groups have petitioned the Treasury Department in recent years to require that every container of beer, wine or liquor carry a label disclosing the amount of alcohol in one standard serving.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Marin Institute, the Consumer Federation of America and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, among others, assert that such information would help Americans drink responsibly and avoid drunk driving. The label would also contain nutrition information such as calories.

But the beer industry has argued that such labels would confuse consumers. With backing from Hensley and others, it has persuaded the Treasury Department to withdraw the alcohol content disclosure from any future label requirement.

"We strongly oppose any proposal that would back a display of alcohol content in terms of fluid ounces or pure alcohol per 'standard serving,' " wrote Andrew McCain, the senator's son. The 2005 letter was sent to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a unit of the Treasury Department. Andrew McCain is chief financial officer at Hensley and owns 6.8% of the stock, according to Arizona records.