Posted on 09/01/2009 9:50:54 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary -- the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum.
Under the agreement, London-based Diageo PLC will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including the entire $165-million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory.
Virgin Islands officials say the arrangement complies with the letter and spirit of tax law and will help the islands' sagging economy.
Captain Morgan is now produced in another U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, and critics say the Virgin Islands' subsidy for the new distillery there, along with the other benefits, are so generous that they practically guarantees a profit on every gallon of rum produced there by Diageo, the biggest distilled spirits maker in the world.
"The U.S. taxpayer is basically being asked to line the pockets of the world's largest liquor producer," says Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.
With the exception of Ellis and a handful of lawmakers, however, the deal has attracted little opposition in Congress or elsewhere.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he does not have authority to block or investigate the project. Criticism on the Hill has been confined to a small group that includes Republican Congressmen Dan Burton of Indiana and Darrel Issa of California, plus a handful of Democrats with large Puerto Rican constituencies.
The key to the deal is a special tax collected on every bottle of rum sold in the United States -- some $470 million a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Now that Teddy’s dead, they need a bailout.
Yo-ho-ho..............
LOL!
Follow the money.
The best rhum is made by Barbancourt in Haiti. Rhum Barbancourt 5 Star 8 Year Old Haitian Rhum. Barbancourt is a superior premium dark rum distilled twice in copper pot stills. It is then barrel aged in white oak barrels. Unlike other island rums, Barbancourt is made directly from sugar cane juice, pressed from hand-cut locally grown cane.
Captain Morgan is dogwater in comparison.
what rum did the RN used to serve on HM’s warships
(the grog issue)?
The list, ping
Got a little Captain in you?
Royal Navy first unofficial tot of rum was in 1655. The first offical tot was in 1731. The last day of issue was 31st July 1970. A standard naval tot of rum consisted of an eighth of a pint of rum (which was over 50% ABV, and was traditionally named “overproof”). Generally spirits are about 40% in comparison. Pussers was the official brand. In home waters beer was issued.
Labelling spirits today as overproof or underproof is derived from the early method of treating Jamaica rum in the naval victualling yards before it was issued to the warships. The rum used to arrive in England at 140 degrees overproof after which it was reduced to 95.5 degrees underproof by having water added to it. A small amount of the mixture was poured over some grains of gunpowder and then a magnifying glass was used to ignite it. If the burning alcohol managed to stay alight then it was said to be “proof”. And if it didn’t light then it was underproof. If it exploded then it was overproof. Proof spirit today is legally defined as that which has a specific gravity of 12/13 (92.3 percent) at 51ºF, and of course they don’t do the gunpowder/magnifying glass test any more.
Pinch whiskey in the famous ‘dimpled bottle’ was preferred in lifeboats due to it’s excellent flavor and the fact that the bottle would not roll around.
OK, more than you needed to know but I just can’t help myself.
The wording is interesting. "......tax collected on every bottle of rum sold" in the United States......"
Does that mean no matter the brand?
fascinating! I’ve never heard of gunpowder flavored
rum before.
It wasn’t flavored with gun powder. That was used just to proof the strength of the rum. Blackbeard was fond of putting gun powder in his grog but I imagine it was more for the effects of it on his heart rate. It tends to give palpitations as well as a blinding headache to most. Soldiers that used paper cartridges during the Civil War would get sick from having it in their mouths when they bit the cartridge open to load a round. Not a good thing in the heat of battle.
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