They – the all-knowing “they” – say you should never watch the legislative process too closely – that it’s a bit like watching sausage get made. That seems to be a pretty substantial “ick” factor.
But, let’s take a peek anyway, at the latest version of the now $800 billion-plus bailout package passed by the U.S. Senate. It is, supposedly, aimed at rescuing us all from the horrors of the crash in 1929 that launched the Great Depression. It is supposed to pull all those “toxic” securities out of the mix, by having us, the taxpayers, buy them; stop the credit markets from freezing up; prevent a run on banks.
Maybe the bill will do that. Here’s what it will also do. It will repeal a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows designed for children. It will give tax breaks to Hollywood producers, stock car racetrack owners and Virgin Islands rum makers. It includes a “research” tax credit worth about $8.3 billion for companies ranging from Microsoft to General Electric. It includes about $17 billion in incentives to promote renewable energy. It modifies the alternative minimum tax, to spare about 24 million households from a tax increase worth about $62 billion.
What are those doing in a bailout bill? Well, legislators say they were tossed in there to make the bailout more attractive to its opponents.
I think it’s time to invoke lipstick on a pig again.
And I think sausage should sue for defamation.
