Federal transportation officials urge states to lower the level of legal intoxication for drivers from a blood alcohol count of 0.08 to 0.05.
Regardless of the lives and money that would be saved, that would be saved and booze lobbyists would predict the end of tavern and other so-called hospitality jobs, and spineless legislators of both parties, along with the Governor, will grovel before these well-heeled and powerful special interests.
But do not look to Wisconsin to get on board, as this is still the only state in Americaso disinterested in safe and sober driving that it gives every motorist one misdemeanor-free OWI arrest, and had to be dragooned some years ago by a loss of federal transportation funding into lowering the existing legal intoxication BAC level to 0.08 of 0.10.
The other 49 states would need their transportation funding threatened all the same, just as they did for a 0.08 BAC for DUI, the (ridiculous) 21 drinking age, and so on. Wisconsin is hardly a special snowflake in this or many other regards, and I see this attitude come up on here and in so many other places too often. It smacks of the same kind of "American exceptionalism" BS, just on a smaller scale. Wisconsin isn't an island, but insular attitudes don't do the state any favors.
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