Bloated Bailout
Q: How do you make a $700+ billion dollar bailout even better?
A: Make it an $810+ billion dollar bailout!
Yes, that’s what our Dear Leaders appear to have done in Congress according to this article on Forbes. Quite frankly, I’m both ashamed and outraged at the Democratic leadership in the Senate. Now, I’m as staunch a Democrat as they come, but Henry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have served as nothing but spineless enablers for the Bush Administration, having abdicated their responsibility to check the power of he and his lackeys long ago.
So what sort of pork have they managed to cram into a plan designed to keep prices inflated and fervently disallow a market correction? Hmmm… let’s see. Let’s start with the “good” stuff first:
- “$64 billion for a provision that keeps the AMT from ensaring an additional 22 million taxpayers in 2008″
- “$11.5 billion for tuition and property tax deductions”.
Yeah, there’s only two bullets. I guess I didn’t need bullets. Nope, they didn’t solve the AMT in a sane fashion, they just put it off — again. C’mon folks. Either get rid of the damn thing or add “adjusted for inflation” to the law. Whew, that sure was tough. And isn’t it startling that the one major tax deduction (mortgage interest) a large portion of the middle class claims is always on the chopping block? The answer to that question is, of course, “no, it’s not startling” because it’s the responsibility of the middle class to pay the taxes. After all, “Only the little people pay taxes.”
Now for some of the pork:
- $36.8 billion for R&D business tax incentives
- $344 million for tax breaks for films and TV programs
- $140 million for “motorsports racing track facilities”
- $5.8 billion for restaurant and retail improvements
- $624 million to accelerate depreciation on business property == tax break
- $132 million in tax incentives to attract businesses to D.C.
Interestingly enough, there is also an $8.8 billion energy extension “for wind and solar energy tax credits, incentives for carbon sequestration projects [read: plant trees] and a credit for owners of plug-in electric vehicles.” And, according to Forbes, “The energy provisions of the bill actually raise government revenue by $61 million”. At least there is a glint of sanity in there somewhere.
So what do Congressional “leaders” have to say about all this fiscal flotsam?
“I am very, very happy with this vote tonight,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “I think it shows that when we work together we can accomplish great things.” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken. said: “This has been the Senate at its finest.”
These people need to be stripped of their offices, plain and simple.