Government agencies of all stripes and types, like to tax things, and the amount of things that are taxed has grown over the years, which means that some items are probably overtaxed and some items are probably under taxed. A case in point is the taxation of distilled spirits, or the hard stuff at the traditional 80 proof, that far too many people consume far too often. While the pricing of your standard 750ml bottle of eighty- proof liquor will vary sharply depending upon the brand, the alcohol type, and the State that you reside in, overall though the price of liquor is very affordable, as a bottle of 750ml liquor can be bought in many States at a price point as low as the $10 range, and a 750ml bottle, provides its recipient and friends, with 25.3605 one ounce shots per bottle, which is plenty of alcohol for a trivial amount of money.
America tried prohibition back in 1920, and that didn't work out too well, in fact, America practices prohibition today in the form of draconian laws in respect to drug usage, which results in an incredible amount of people incarcerated, fined, punished, and so forth, for the crime of possibly abusing their own body. Adults should be given the choice as to what they do or don't want to do with their body, and with their consciousness, and subsequently every day adults in this country decide whether they like to have a drink, or two, or many more than two. That said, alcohol consumption has traditionally been seen as something to tax as a "sin" and there isn't any real good reason not to continue that practice which is why, when looking upon the price of alcohol, in comparison to how destructive alcohol is to individuals as well as families and society in general, that the taxation on a federal level needs to increase.
Currently, the taxation of alcohol from a federal level is only $2.14 for a 750ml bottle, which is way too low for this product and needs to be raised immediately, as unlike many other taxes on many other products, there simply isn't any good reason why alcohol shouldn't be taxed at a rate that doesn’t pain or inconvenience the consumer of such, especially for a product that essentially provides no social good, whatsoever. It's difficult to come up with an argument as to why federal excise taxes on alcohol are so low, in fact, its' difficult to understand why there would even be an argument about it.
Of course, there are two parts to the alcohol situation, which is, you have the consumers of the product, who ultimately suffer from consuming it, and then there are the profiteers of the sale of the product, in which the lion's share of said profits are part and parcel of these massive multinational corporations that have powerful lobbying arms and are highly motivated to keep things just the way that they are in order to make good sustainable profits on other people's vices and weakness. Be that as it may, there isn't any good reason why something like tobacco, which has been vilified by governmental and health agencies of all types for the last couple decades, in which, tobacco has been treated like the devil, itself, whereas, on the other hand, alcohol has somehow been able to get basically a free ride.
It really comes down to this, governments need money, and certain people claim they need alcohol, so keep it real simple, raise the federal excise tax 400% from today's insanely low level to collect more in revenue from this insidious harmful vice.