Sweeteners aka Tax Cuts and Pork
I’m looking for it now but on the news this morning within the Bailout Bill is ready?
$6,000,000 for wooden arrows and some stuff for Nascar Race Tracks…hmmmm I wonder whose constituents that caters too? Oh hey, look Alaska made it in there too!
Here are some new Tax earmarks in Bailout bill, (courtesty Hot Air)…
– Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
– Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
– 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill.
– Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
– American Samoa (Sec. 309)
– Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
– Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
– Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
– Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
– Railroads (Sec. 316)
– Auto Racing Tracks (317)
– District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
– Wool Research (Sec. 325)
Are you serious? I thought this was a bailout bill to help the mortage crisis. What is all these add ons? Wooden arrows? Nascar Race Tracks? Valdez? Rum? Wool? What is this all about? Alaska residents get an average of $6000.00 extra per year (each) from oil profits and drilling in their state as it is. Who is going to put a stop to this free for all.
An NPR reporter asked (I think it was) Barney Frank about all of the add ons — he said that most of it was a continuation of some tax breaks that had been in existence for some time.
I give him credit for a smooth answer, but it is still pretty crappy. All of those Senators with their “it isn’t perfect, but we have to do something” get to hide behind their newfound pork. The thing is that they might have gotten to something more useful (because I do think that they’ll be back and be back within a year) if they had slowed down enough to have some damn hearings on the options.