It took 150 billion dollars of ear marks to buy the votes, but the No Banker Left Behind bill has passed. 263 to 171.
I noticed today that most articles about the bill now refer to it as a "rescue" not a bail out and that the amount of spending is still stated to be 700 billion as if the extra 150 billion does not exist. Got to love the corporate owned media.
If you are wondering what that 150 billion bought - other than the votes to pass this travesty - here are some of the provisions:
• Section 308: Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• Section 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
• Section 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
• Section 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
• Section 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
• Section 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Each of the above spending provisions is targeted at a particular member of congress.
If you don't feel like your ass hurts today, you aren't paying attention.
I'll be writing the cat in before I vote for my congressional representative. I wish I could vote for Kucinich who stood staunch until the end.
Yes, we needed something, but this gross, bloated, unsupervised earmarked to death bill was not it.
Where is a HLOC? Where is accountability?
"How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down?" -- Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas (Not my rep)
"I will oppose the Wall Street bailout plan because though well intentioned, and certainly much improved over the administration’s original proposal, it remains deeply flawed. It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression. The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess." -- Senator Russ Feingold
"I believe in this idea of making sure that the great mass of people get some help. This plan is immoral. This plan is a disgrace. It bails out people on Wall Street who have speculated and who would drive this economy into the ground unless we have some controls on them." - Congressional Representative and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich
And if for one second you think the disbursal of these funds will have any oversight at all, you need to read the post at Naked Capitalism that exposed the phone call reasurrances made by Treasury to Wall St that the oversight is just proforma.
Updated on 0755 CST 4 Oct:
I found these specific motivations over at the popular Capitol Hill gossip blog, Open Congress:
Mmmm…pork. It’s irresistibly delicious – especially if you’re a congressman with an influential constituent that’s asking you for a tax break. The congressional leadership understands this, of course, and they’re using it as a central part of their strategy to get an unpopular $700 billion bailout of the financial system passed through Congress.
Many people have noted that the revised bailout bill that was passed by the Senate on Wednesday and will be voted on by the House on Friday contains a lot of unrelated pork. Most of it comes straight from H.R. 6049, a tax extenders bill that was essentially rolled into the bailout in its entirety. The provisions that come from that bill are widely popular. But there are a handful of tax provisions that the congressional leadership has added to the bailout bill that don’t originate in the tax extenders bill, and have been added to win the support of members of Congress how voted against the bill on Monday.
Below is a list of the tax provisions in the bailout bill that are not from H.R. 6049 and an explanation of who they are targeting in the House:
1. Wooden Arrows Tax Relief- This is the most infamous piece of pork being attached to the bailout. It exempts wooden arrows (yes, as in bows and arrows) manufactured for use by children from a 39 cent excise tax that is applicable to some arrow manufacturers. It comes straight from a bill in Congress sponsored by Oregon Senators Ron Wyden (D) and Gordon Smith® in the Senate, and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) in the House. Taxpayers for Common Sense notes a Bloomberg article explaining that “the provision would be worth $200,000 to Rose City Archery in Myrtle Point, Oregon.” Four of the nine Representatives from Oregon voted against the bailout on Monday. That’s fully one-third of the votes the House nneds to gain to pass the bailout on Friday.
2. Tax Relief for Exxon Valdez Victims – CNN explains that this provision would “allow the plaintiffs who won damages from Exxon Mobile for the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez to average the award over three years rather than treating it as income in a single year.” The provision is strongly supported by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) who represents the state that the Valdez incident occurred in. Young voted against the bailout on Monday.
3. Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Program – This provision would extend a program from the federal government to share logging revenues with rural communities that border on Forest Service land. It comes straight from two separate bills in Congress, H.R. 17 and H.R. 1635. Those bills are both sponsored by Representatives that voted against the bailout on Monday – Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID).
4. Duty Suspension on Wool Products and Research – This is a duty relief extension designed to benefit worsted wool manufacturers using imported wool and clothing manufacturers who use wool as their primary fabric. It comes straight from a bill in Congress, H.R. 4831. The bill’s main sponsor voted in favor of the bailout on Monday, but one of its three co-sponsors, Robin Hayes (R-NC) voted against it,
5. Abandoned Mine Reclamation – Again, this is something taken directly from another bill in Congress, H.R. 2262. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, this provision would transfer “interest earned on money in the abandoned mine reclamation fund to the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Fund, which helps pay health benefits for retired miners and their dependents who worked under collective bargaining agreements that promised lifetime health-care benefits.” The original legislation passed the House in November, 2007, mostly with support from Democrats. However, of the 24 Republicans who crossed party lines ad voted for the bill, 12 were “no” votes on the bailout on Monday.
Update 2, 0930 CST, 4 Oct:
Asked in the comments if there was anything redeeming about this bill, I went looking for the "silver lining." What with an additional 150 billion dollars of pork, there had to be something that will be of benefit for the people, yes?
It turned out there is one thing I can get behind in this bill. It happens to be an issue near and dear to my heart - alternative energy. From the Wired blog network:
Included in the legislation Friday was a one-year extension of a tax break for wind energy production companies, and an eight year extension of a 30 percent tax break for residential and commercial solar installations.
"The bill is a major step in our long journey toward energy independence and ensures that solar energy will be a significant part of America's energy future," said the Solar Energy Industries Association president Rhone Resch in a statement. "This long-term extension of solar tax credits will create a domestic solar industry with hundreds of thousands of jobs while providing clean, affordable, carbon-free energy to millions of American families, businesses and communities."
The renewable energy industry had been fretting all year that members of Congress would adjourn without renewing the tax breaks, which company representatives said would have put a crimp in the industry's growth because they would have had a harder time obtaining financing.
Update 3, 1015 CST, 4 Oct:
I found another positive. Treehugger reported credits for hybrid vehicles were tucked into the bailout. Interesting how they iced Toyota out:
The original "bailout plan" by Treasury Secretary Paulson was 3 pages long. The Senate version that was passed last night (H.R. 1424) is now 451 pages long and it has "sweeteners" for everybody and their dogs.
PHEV Credit
One of those is a plug-in hybrid vehicle tax credit that was probably first seen in some GM wet dream: "The credit is a base $2,500 plus $417 for each kWh of battery pack capacity in excess of 4 kWh, to a maximum of $7,500 for light-duty vehicles," up to $15,000 for vehicles weighting more than 26,000 pounds. Because the Chevy Volt has a 16-kWh battery pack, it would get the maximum credit. Read on for more details.
Bailing Out... GM?
But that's not all! Part of the big smile on GM's face is the provision that restricts the credit to vehicles with a battery pack with at least 4 kWh of capacity. This means that the first generation of Toyota plug-in hybrids, and probably many others, will be excluded.
It's a good thing they're setting a high standard for plug-in hybrids, but if they had wanted to encourage PHEVs in general, they could have had smaller credits for plug-ins with smaller battery packs.
When Will it End?
"Phaseout of the credit is to begin after the total number of qualified PHEVs in the US sold after 31 December 2008 is at least 250,000."
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Comments
Of course, I am so liberal I make the center look fascist.
I'm glad the small taste of what is a very long pork parade was appreciated. If a bill has to be "sweetened" to the tune of 150 billion, it must be pretty sour to start.
Fool us once...
Seems to me that we still have a serious co-mingling of the Washington/Wall Street/Media "good old boy club," which manipulated these opinions and decisions from the get go.
If there is a bright side, we had all better pray for sunshine and a heated economy in the day's forecast to come.
Please click over and learn more about the downside of this horrible legislation:
A Mantra for Our Times: Why, Why, Why?
Her post also includes a link to the final vote tally which will let you verify how your representative voted.
I don't know if this bailout is needed or not. But I do know that I want Congress to spend more time on debating this than they did the Iraq war vote or The Patriot Act.
Economics has certainly never been my strong suit and trying to understand how the markets work is mind-boggling. But a few years ago, I came to the realization that unfortunately most of the people in Congress know about as much about the issue that they're voting on as I do.
Thanks again
.. and boy do I admire Russ Feingold and Dennis Kucinich
I blog whored us a couple other placed as well.
I saw your comments elsewhere criticizing Obama for supporting this bill and I would hope some of the true-believers would start to realize that Obama may be just another politician doing anything it takes to get elected. I actually hope that is who he is because if he really is a true leftist and gets elected then this country is going to have a wild ride continuing with little chance of a good outcome.
Again, excellent post LT.
But, within all the added on "pork," did you find anything of worth that might just help every American as opposed to small special interest groups? Every black cloud has a silver lining.
Anyone: Is there anything that can give us a sliver of hope or joy?
Note that Oregon's Peter DeFazio's amendment to fund counties/schools is something he has been working on for a long time. And, he still voted no on the bill.
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=17924
Thanks for the post, LT!
rated and enjoyed
As far as a campaign to throw the bums out goes, I am not sure letters will do it. I still send money to Glen Greenwald's PAC that is focused on FISA traitors, Accountability Now PAC. Perhaps he will add in these bailout porkers as well. It takes money to dethrone politicians.
Interestingly enough, it is something you would think congress would have been able to pass on its own, extended breaks for wind and solar energy. But perhaps I am biased as the special interest of alternative energy is one I favor?