While the drinking age and drinking itself have been a heavily debated topic in modern American society, the controversy has gained more publicity recently when a New Jersey lawmaker proposed lowering the drinking age back down to 18 years of age.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll submitted the age old argument that while men and women may join the army and vote in their country at the age of 18, they cannot drink alcohol until they reach 21. “If you’re old enough to hoist an M4 and shoot a terrorist, you’re old enough to hoist a beer,” Carroll said in an interview with NJ Advance Media. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law that would increase the drinking age from 18 to 21 nationwide in hopes that it would reduce teenage alcohol abuse.

The main reason most lawmakers are against this idea is that the repercussions of passing this law are high. By reducing the drinking age in any state, that state would face losing millions of dollars from the federal government that goes towards funding for highway repairs each year. Another assemblyman named Declan O’Scanlon agrees with Carroll and says that, “My biggest problem is the federal government uses our money to extort us into passing laws.”

While this proposition has gained much interest from the general public, it is highly unlikely that the drinking age in New Jersey or any other state will be lowered soon. With rampant alcohol abuse occurring everyday in American high schools and college, lawmakers are hesitant to make alcohol easier to acquire for those aged 18 to 20 to purchase.