Oct 01 2008
I Didn’t Like it Before
I like it less now. The bill that the House was trying to pass has only been made worse with the revisions now being voted on in the Senate. The add ons are, to me anyway, mind boggling. I admit I’m not going to read all 400+ pages that it has now grown to but I have looked into some of the add ons. Here are a few of the gems.
· FDIC increased from 100k to 250k (good addition…I get how it fits with the plan)
· Mental Health Parity Revision (fluff nothing to do with the bill)
· Extension on alternative min tax (eh)
· Renewable energy tax credit (focus people)
· Relief for disaster victims (off topic again)
· Credits for buying plug in cars and riding bikes to work (uhm…ok.)
· Mine rescue
· Railroad maintenance
· Help for the film and television industry
· Exemption from excise tax for….wooden arrows (I couldn’t make this shit up)
If you want to look at it in something that is a bit more manageable you can also check out the entire bit here, except broken down. And if you want more examples of how this is less of a ‘bailout bill’ and more of a put your wish list in and hope it passes because everyone is freaking out bill, you can go here.
Now before any of you (you know who you are) accuse me of not caring about my country, understand that I do care about my country. I do want my country to make good decisions and not react in a fearful way…I want them to take their freaking time and come up with something that is useful to the economy and not take advantage of the situation. I am in no way (at least not for this post) saying that the economy doesn’t need some help. What I am saying is that this particular bill sucks and I hope it fails and that the powers that be come up with something a little less fluffy and a lot more useful.
Everyone knows the bill sucks. That wasn’t the point. The point was to get cash back into the system in order to eliminate, or significantly lessen, a credit freeze. Hopefully, that happens. It is interesting to note that John “I’ll veto every bill with an earmark that comes across my desk! I’ve never voted for a bill with an earmark!” McCain was one of the 74 Senators that voted for the bill.
My favorite are the tax cuts which make soooo much sense when adding 700 billion dollar tab to the governments already burgeoning deficit. Maybe they should tack on a clause so that people can pay their mortgages with gummy bears, now there’s something I could really get behind.
That’s my favorite. Help for the film and television industry….WHAT!?!?
I think part of the problem is that no-one has the time or inclination to go through 400+ pages with a fine tooth comb and dissect each point word by word to see what the language allows the bill to do. I’m in favor of the gummy bear bill!
I honestly think the whole point of this particular bill was to make a fool of John McCain. Earmarks are a necessary evil in a system where even half of our representatives can’t agree on a single issue. It’ll be interesting to see how the red team tries to spin this.
Glad to see you’re on Entrecard. I can’t wait to advertise.