By Daily Crux Editor Brian Hunt:

The latest from the "Atlas Shrugged" files...

Rather than cut spending from its bloated government budget, Oregon is going to raise its state beer tax from $2.60 a barrel to $52.21... a 1,900% increase. If the plan passes, it will make Oregon the highest beer-taxing state.

This is particularly stupid for Oregon. The state is home to a huge microbrewery industry... the second largest in the country. As this excellent bit from the WSJ puts it: "For Oregon to enact punitive taxes on its homegrown beer industry makes as much sense as Idaho slapping an excise tax on potatoes or for New York to tax stock trading."

Ayn Rand's free-market manifesto Atlas Shrugged is the tale of the moochers (bureaucrats and welfare cases) attacking the productive, earning members of society in a misplaced attempt to stave off financial catastrophe. It's starting to play out in real life all over America.

The vampires running New York City are sinking their teeth deeper and deeper into the city's productive taxpayers... same with California. And now, they're going after the hard working, beer drinking folks of Oregon. Please forward this post to every Oregonian you know and try to stop this.

Read full article...

Atlas Shrugged begins... New York turns on the rich

Atlas Shrugged begins, Part II... New York taxes bite deeper and deeper

Atlas Shrugged strikes California: State bleeding productive tax payers and drawing-in tax receivers