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Don’t look too closely … we’re just helping you out

Oct 2nd, 2008 by Taylor Armerding

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.

Posted in Taylor Armerding | Comments

  • jacrlsn
    I find it very interesting that one of the big reasons we are in this mess to begin with is the use of credit (borrowing by both government and people). Now we are going to "borrow" 810 billion dollars-Why?-to free up credit so that we can borrow more. Talk about catch 22
    Seems to me that even though it may be strong medicine we need less credit and to dry up the supply of credit instead of making more credit available.
    Or maybe we should just sell the country to the Chinese and the Arabs. we owe them so much they own us anyway.
  • bilge rat
    While this entire "crisis" has been unfolding, I've been asking myself how things ever got so bad? How can our elected officials continue to make the same boneheaded, illogical mistakes over and over again?

    Well, I think I've found the answer. It makes a lot of sense and explains a lot of the actions of the democrats and extreme left wing liberals.

    The Cloward-Piven strategy...

    I really don't know what else to say about this debacle except I really fear for the future of this country and what the future will hold for our kids.
  • mutt
    "And I think sausage should sue for defamation."

    That is the *BEST* line I have heard in years.
    Perfect.
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