Wednesday, July 16, 2008

THIS BUD'S NOT FOR YOU

Recently Missourians have found one issue that seems to bind us all together....liberal & conservative, Republican & Democrat. They have come from both sides of the aisle to voice an objection to the sale of Anheuser-Busch to the European-owned InBev. Unfortunately, the uninhibited sale of a US company to the highest bidder is part of our system of Free Enterprise. So they all gave lip-service against the sale but could do nothing to stop it. It was a decision of the shareholders (as it should be). But even Sen. Obama spoke out against the sale & hoped that shareholders would remember to keep Bud an American Beer.

One political figure was silent on the sale. Now we know why. John McCain's wife may like driving around town in her sportscar with the vanity plates "MS. BUD" (when she's not flying her private plane. But you never heard her voice an objection to the sale. Nor did you hear her husband; who frequently explains how he is looking out for the American Worker, ask shareholders to sacrifice profit for the good of the Americans who hold jobs with Budweiser.

One of the concerns of an InBev buyout is that InBev has a history of buying a brewery and then cutting jobs to raise their profit margin. I hope that all the Anheuser-Busch employees (who now must worry about what changes are in store for them) remember in November who made an estimated 1 - 2 million dollars on the sale. (Insult to injury is that she will be paying capital gains tax at a rate of 15%, a Bush tax cut that McCain opposed until he ran for President. Now he supports it....wonder why?)

So why didn't either of the McCains comment on the sale in advance? How did Cindy McCain vote her estimated 40,000 - 80,0000 shares?

The next time you raise a bottle of Bud....remember: John & Cindy McCain raised not a bottle, but a finger...to all of us!

THANKS A LOT!

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