Bailout won't pass? Throw in more pork.

[randomness]

As it turns out, one of the ways Congress has come up with to get the MOAB (Mother of All Bailouts) to pass is the time-honored way of adding more pork to it. Mmmm...pork.

From http://tbm.thebigmoney.com/articles/juicy-bits/2008/10/01/bailout-baloney:

Save the world economy! Save the wooden arrows for children! The Senate is doing both tonight. The 451-page Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 includes a number of tax relief measures added in presumably to garner votes; certainly few seem to respond to an emergency, or do anything particularly stabilizing. Here are the juicy bits from the bill that help some special interests or regions.

DIVISION C-TAX EXTENDERS AND ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX RELIEF

SEC. 308. INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EXCISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.

SEC. 309. EXTENSION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CREDIT FOR AMERICAN SAMOA.

SEC. 317. SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MOTORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY.

SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY SUSPENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RESEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.

SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.

Perhaps modifications like this will help get them the votes they need in the House.

Edit: According to Forbes, the additional provisions add $110 billion to the cost of the bailout, which makes it an $810 billion package.

Comments

[evilmagnus]

Who wants to be on record voting against wooden arrows for children? No-one! GENIUS.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

GENIUS, indeed.

[nezumiko.livejournal.com]

Well it's only certain wooden arrows for children. Other wooden arrows for children are going to be double taxed to make up for it.

So are these arrows for children to shoot into their nitwit elders who tanked the economy?

[mmancuso.livejournal.com]

Whereupon they kick their shins and throw their newspaper onto the porch roof. That'll show those nitwit elders. Read about your stoopid economy from the roof if you wanna.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Oh, for fuck's sake.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind if I post about this, using the links you supplied, and so forth.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Sure! Amplify as you like, although I do feel it's a done deal in the House as well.

Also, there's an argument going around that the pork is from another House bill that already passed which the Senate attached the bailout to, so it would pass.

This link: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/10/more-on-oinking-bailout-bill.html
has a refutation of that argument (from the original poster) in the comments:

"The original bill, as discussed here in several posts before the horse-trading started, was three pages, and that included definitions, for the Treasury Secretary to have blanket authority, no review, to buy assets from financial firms (rather broadly defined) as he saw fit....The pork was added when the bill went from its interim 110 page version to its current 451 page form."

"A DC guy who speaks to Congressmen (a lobbyist) e-mailed me and told me the pork was added specifically to get votes. He said it was horse trading."

Thanks for asking!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Also, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/10/02/16589/bailout-add-ons/ has more add-ons not mentioned in the other links:

Sec. 310. Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008
Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008

Enjoy!

[choirsoftheeye.livejournal.com]

While I'm honored they remembered my hometown in Sec. 308, that and 309 puzzle me. I can only conclude that they think of that as genuine economic stimulus - the USVI, Puerto Rico and American Somoa have no voting representatives in the federal government and people living there can't vote for president.

It could be an instance of strong lobbyists, I guess... But Cruzan Rum, the only rum exported from the Virgin Islands is a small company - I doubt they're bigger than Magic Hat. I'm puzzled.

The pork wasn't added to the bailout, the bailout was added to the pork

[fin9901.livejournal.com]

All financial bills have to start in the House as per the Constitution, so the Senate pulled a trick they first tried something like 10-20 years ago: take some innocuous House bill, add this big honking thing onto it, and send it back to the House. In this case the innocuous bill in question had already passed the Senate with 90+ votes and the House with 400+ votes. If the House had any self-respect, they'd step up and say 'this is a horrible way to run a railroad, let us originate this like the Constitution says we should' and vote it down, but they already tried that and it failed, so I expect the House will just go along meekly like the last time this stunt was tried.

So the crap wasn't added to the bailout, the bailout was added to the crap.

Re: The pork wasn't added to the bailout, the bailout was added to the pork

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

As I said in comments above, I've heard a refutation of that argument. At this point it hardly matters, as there's plenty of crap to go around.