WI: Bill would let GIs drink at 19 in state

[rainbow4321]

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories//index.php?ntid=39323&ntpid=2

Rep. Mark Pettis has introduced a bill that would allow 19-year-old members of the military to drink alcohol. AB 141, which will be considered by the Assembly Committee on State Affairs on Thursday, would lower the drinking age to 19 for members of the U.S. armed forces who are stationed in Wisconsin on active duty, if the state obtains a federal waiver or participates in a federal pilot program.

"If we can send these young men and women to war and expect them to have common sense in pushing the button on armament, we should give them the ability to have a drink," said Pettis, R-Hertel.

"A high percentage of those killed in action are under 21. These folks have the ability to make the decision to fire weapons that can do mass damage, but they can't have a beer. There's something wrong with this picture."

"If you want to support the troops, let's support the troops," Pettis said. "This would be for Wisconsin residents only, so there would be no border crossing." People who come back from serving in Iraq should not have to celebrate their survival in an alley or a cornfield, Pettis said.

[SoCalDem]

1. Free Booze as a signing "bonus"?

What WILL they think of next?

[rainbow4321]

4. The state could also lose 10% of their highway funding

So screw any lawmakers who help this pass if they start to bitch about the state's infrastructure (d/t crappy funding)!


From the same article:

Under the federal national minimum drinking age law, a state that allows those under 21 to drink alcohol loses 10 percent of federal highway aid annually.

[rzemanfl]

2. What are the ones with no arms or mouths supposed to do?

This is so damn Wisconsin, the solution to everything is to hoist one. I wonder if I would have become an alcoholic if I had lived in a different state without that bar culture and shitty weather.

[Ian David]

6. They should legalize pot for soldiers, too.They're dying soon anyway.

Say...

Why aren't drugs legal when Jesus is coming soon anyway?

Are we gonna legalize pot once all the assholes are Raptured?

[Kerrytravelers]

3. This is so silly and such a waste of taxpayers money.

[Ian David]

5. They can strap empty kegs to their Hummers since we won't buy them armor

"Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I will have another beer. I also believe that tomorrow I may be driving an un-armored Hummer through a minefield."

[DrDebug]

8. Why did you say that? Now I get an impression

of Hummer with drunk soldiers behind the wheel. And they can sure cause some damage that way.

[Ian David]

15. What are they going to crash into? They're in the desert.

And they really don't need to aim very well, since they seem to have no problem with civilian casualties.

Sorry, I mean "collateral damage."

Or, as Bush calls it, "Clitoral Damage."

[ComerPerro]

7. I would appreciate the gesture, if it didn't just seem like a ploy

to up recruiting

[noamnety]

9. OR

They should raise the enlistment age to 21, because he's right, people that aren't mature enough to handle alcohol certainly shouldn't be making decisions to fire weapons that can do mass damage.

I agree - there's something wrong with this picture.

[Vinca]

10. Maybe this is a ploy to get 19 year olds sh*t faced so they'll enlist. nt

[0007]

13. Not a doubt in my mind!

[Solly Mack]

11. gawds

that man has no clue

[kodi]

if you fight, kill & die for the country, it should allow you to get drunk

the same thinking went into reducing the voting age to 18 35 years ago

[kodi]

12. if you fight, kill & die for the country, it should allow you to get drunk

the same thinking went into reducing the voting age to 18 35 years ago

[applegrove]

14. That is how the British built an army in the 19th Century. People were

as poor as church mice if they didn't have a "position" or a "situation" or were not educated by the local intellectual. There was no university. There was nothing but the farm or peanuts to be made in factory work.

So if you were a young man and you wanted 'two cents to rub together' and buy a beer, you joined the army.

[xray s]

16. Nice to see the beer lobby is alive and well in Wisconsin

"hey kid, you might get your ass shot off, but hey, now you can drink a beer and make my buddies some more money to boot. Is that a deal or what?"

[WI_DEM]

17. frankly the drinking age should be lowered to 19 FOR EVERYBODY

regardless of whether you go into the military or not.