Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey have the details on this 451 page monstrosity… That’s right 451 pages! The original Paulson Plan was roughly two pages, the house bill was just over 100 and the senate bill is 451 pages.
Some of the additions in the Senate bill include:
New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill
- Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill.
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)
The one question that needs to be asked: Is this bailout plan even a good idea? At least a few economists think it isn’t… From CNSNews.com:
Free Market Economists Reject Bailout as Bad Policy that Could Prolong Slowdown
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
By Matt Cover(CNSNews.com) – The federal government created the current financial crisis, and unless it does some serious housekeeping, no amount of bailout money is going to solve the problem. That’s what some free market economists and experts said when CNSNews.com asked them about the proposed bailout plan that was rejected Monday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The problem with the plan is that “it was a bailout,” said Sheldon Richman, editor of The Freeman, a free market journal. “It’s the government swooping in and buying rotten loans from banks (that) made bad mistakes.”
The bailout’s proposed $700 billion price tag was only “a minimum,” according to Richman, who claimed the bailout failed because “the taxpayers were innocent in this and yet they were going to be forced one way or another to pay for these mistakes.”
Richman said that instead of bailing out failed financial institutions, Congress needs to end the bad housing policies that caused the crisis in the first place – a remedy that was echoed by other economists, including professor Jake Haulk of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
“It wasn’t Wall Street that created these guaranteed mortgage-backed securities; it was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac acting as adjuncts of the government – and they are to blame,” Haulk told CNSNews.com.
“You don’t get a crisis of this magnitude unless there was very heavy government involvement somewhere,” he said, adding that serious reforms are absent from the current proposal.
And there in is the problem with these bailout plans… We’re treating the symptoms but not the disease itself.
Update (4:10 p.m.): Tax cuts not spending earmarks??? Americans for Tax Reform has released a statement calling the term “tax earmark” misleading… Apparently the items listed above are tax cuts not new spending.
Rich Lowry and others are calling tax cuts in the Senate bailout package “earmarks” today.
Calling tax cuts “earmarks” is very unhelpful and completely wrong from a fiscal conservative perspective. There is no such thing as a “tax earmark.” Earmarks are spending. There are appropriations earmarks. There are authorization earmarks. There are no “tax earmarks.” To claim that there are puts tax deductions and credits (which is what we’re talking about here) on the same par as bridges to nowhere. Was the creation of HSAs a “tax earmark?” How about the home mortgage interest deduction? One might call for lowering the rates and broadening the base, but we should not fall into the trap of equating tax cuts and spending increases. That’s how some Senate Republicans got in such massive trouble over health care last year and energy this year vis-à-vis taxes. Read the rest…
Oct. 2, 2008
Dear Georgia Senators and Representatives,
Please Please Vote NO to this ridiculous $700 Billion PORK Barrel Dollar Bailout! This certainly is no way to solve our problems and every well-educated tax paying American Citizen surely knows this!!! If you truly care, you will see that nearly ¾ of the American Citizens don’t want our tax paying dollars to go toward the bailouts of Private Companies!
Instead, why don’t you all try looking at helping us tax payers by reducing taxes, and by giving us all assistance by reducing gas and food? I like the rest of the tax paying country am sick and tired of the Wall Street Greed and Corporate Greed that rules our country.
And now we have this bail out with over $1.7 Billion In Pork Barrel Spending? HA!! What A Joke! Politicians just can’t help themselves when it comes to stuffing pork in any and all bills, with both new waste, and renewals of old waste!!!
Is it any wonder these bozos aren’t trusted, and Congress has single-digit approval ratings? The only bipartisan agreement comes on stuffing pork and earmarks at every opportunity — the one thing both parties agree on. Disgusting — and at 451 pages long, what are the odds any of the Senators actually reading the bill?
New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill
· Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
· Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
· 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill.
· Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
· American Samoa (Sec. 309)
· Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
· Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
· Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
· Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
· Railroads (Sec. 316)
· Auto Racing Tracks (317)
· District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
· Wool Research (Sec. 325)
What does ANY of that have to do with saving the economy? It doesn’t!! Why can’t Congress do the right thing and strip this pork from the bill? They only seem to one to , guarantee its passage so they’ll load it up with even more pork earmarks!!!
Let’s just call the bailout for what it is! It is just mopping the floor and even replacing some flooring after a leak; it does not fix the leak. The only way to fix the leak is to either abolish the Community Reinvestment Act or at least repeal the idiotic interpretation and expansion of the act under the Clinton administration (Janet Reno), whereby financial institutions were/are strong-armed into creating loans for people who can’t afford them. Why will no one talk about this? We might as well keep the mop handy, because we’ll need it again.
Shame on you Sen. Obama for supporting pork and earmarks! Here’s a chance for McCain to take a stand and — at the very least — make a speech proclaiming all these earmarks, and who they’re from!!! I thought it to be unlikely that the Senate wouldn’t pass this pork-fest, but at they did! At least Sen. McCain could be on record. Let’s hope the House doesn’t pass the pork-fest as well, and the House Republicans don’t knuckle under to pressure and demand the earmarks be removed, as well as protecting taxpayers from paying the $700 billion of the bill. They have the right idea — loans not bailouts. Let’s also hope the House remembers it’s backbone and opposes this disaster (which will likely be laden with even more pork now that the Senate has passed this!.
Six Million Dollars in the manufacturing of toy arrows. One Hundred Twenty Eight Dollars for a Race Track. Money to go to Somalia for American jobs to go overseas!
Money for Rum in Puerto Rico! Four Billion Dollars for the 1989 Exxon Valdez!!!
Disgusting! Disgusting!! Disgusting!!!
And Shame on all our Nations Senators that voted and the House Representatives that will vote for this ridiculous Bailout plan!!!!!!
And shame on your to my/our Georgia Senator “Saxby Chambliss”!!! As Jim Martin (the Democratic man running against Saxby Chambliss) in Georgia states, “The only thing worse than having to pay $700 billion today would be having to pay another $700 billion tomorrow because Washington and Saxby Chambliss could not find the courage and common ground to stand up and make a real change in the system!” This bailout doesn’t address any of the problems that started this crises and is nothing more that a foolish band-aid!
Senator Chambliss this is what has been going on in ATLANTA while you have been away in Washington. At the height of the gasoline shortage across metro Atlanta last week, a lot of people were just hoping to find enough fuel to get through the weekend. I won’t commit on our Governor and his vacation during all of this overseas!
But at the same time I will comment on one local government, which as throwing a party for some of its employees and using dozens of county vehicles to drive employees to the gathering during work hours. Was it a waste of taxpayers’ money and time or a legitimate exercise in building morale among public employees?
The whistleblower who called WSB-TV Channel 2 clearly felt it was wasteful.
Fulton County officials disagreed. People started arriving at the event in south Fulton County’s Welcome All Park about 10 a.m. on Friday. The tipster said everyone in the county’s General Services Department was invited. That would be about 285 people in a department that, among other things, maintains county facilities and vehicles, according to the Fulton County Web site. Fulton County communications director Jessica Corbitt said it was “a team-building exercise.” It was a Friday, a workday, but work was replaced by dancing, volleyball and socializing on this day. Video of the event shows about 200 people, perhaps more, at the party by midday. There was a long line for lunch. County officials said employees, not taxpayers, paid for the food. WSB-TV counted at least 39 Fulton County vehicles in the parking lot, which was also filled with what appeared to be personal vehicles of employees who had driven themselves. Welcome All Park is 16 miles southwest of the department’s main office in downtown Atlanta, but three times that far from the county’s facilities in north Fulton County.
The woman who answered the phone at General Services during the event said she didn’t know how long it would last. It appeared that most of the employees left the park by 2 p.m. The county said some of the employees may have finished their shifts, but others were expected to return to work. There is no word on how many were expected to return to work. The whistleblower said the department has two similar annual events, one in the spring and one in the fall.
Disgusting! Disgusting!! Disgusting!!! Thus, as one of your voters and fellow taxpayer, I am disgusted to think about even more wasteful tax dollar spending with your $700 Billion Dollar Bailout! Surely we can find another way to solve this?
While we are at it, why doesn’t our government clean themselves up and start taking care of the fraud in today’s housing market? The American Housing Market Crash need never have happened had it not been the corporate greed of Banks and Mortgage Companies!!! As a one time bank employee, loan analyst, and loan officer, I speak first handedly about all of the sub-prime and mortgage mess that we are now in! As a newbie in the field, I realized this all the way back to 2001 when I first started in the Mortgage Banking field! So much unscrupulous practices of our banks, mortgage companies, real Estate Companies, and their CEO’s and Corporate Structure! It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the bottom would eventually fall out! Why are we all now shocked to see the closer of such companies such as Home Banc, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, AIG, etc? After all, it was the banks, mortgage companies and appraisal companies that started creating our over inflated home mortgage values across this country! Can we all say, “GREEDY” !
For instance, let’s put the newly revised $700 Billion Plus Bailout aside for a moment and let us focus on one of these companies. Let’s say AIG.
I was against this $85,000,000, 000.00 tax payer bailout of AIG!
What a waste of our Tax Paying Dollars! What should have be done was giving $85,000,000, 000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend!!!
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan was to give $425,00 00 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend!
Of course, it would NOT have been tax-free! So let’s assume you applied a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000, 000 right back to Uncle Sam! But it also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket!! A husband and wife would have had $595,000 .00 in their pockets!!
Seriously, “what would you have done with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family’s pocket?” Why you could ……
1. Pay off your mortgage – Housing Crisis Solved!!
2. Repay college loans – What a great boost to new grads!
3. Put away money for college – It would have been there!
4. Save in a bank – Created money to loan to entrepreneurs!
5. Buy a new car – Which helps create new jobs!
6. Invest in the market – Capital drives growth don’t you know!!
7. Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – Health care and its crisis improves!
8. Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or Else!!!
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces. If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 (“vote buy”) economic incentive that was being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
Instead of doing an $85 billion bailout of big corporations, we should have bailed out every adult U S Citizen 18+!~~!!
As for AIG – it should have been liquidated! This company should have been made to sell off its parts! Thus, then the American General would be going back to being American General!!! Sell off the real estate! Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and thus clean it up!!
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t! (AMEN).
Sure it sounds like a crazy idea. But it could have worked!! Can you have imagined what a Coast-To-Coast Block Party we would have had?
How do you spell Economic Doom Mr. President, Congressman and Senators of Georgia and of the United States? I trust my fellow adult Americans know how to use he $85 Billion. We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC. And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam!!!
Since we voters don’t feel better because our tax paying dollars of $85 million was given to a private organizations like AIG and their greedy CEO’s, perhaps you could think of better ways to give $700 Billion Dollars Back to the US Citizens of this country rather than bailing out the Establishments and the Institution which are far overpaid and where corruption runs ramped! Perhaps you might take my above calculations and plug in the new figures of $700 Billion and see how much of that would go to ever legal, hardworking, of-aged American! Surely the people of this country from blue and white collar worker, the farmer, teacher, policeman, fireman, nurse, student, ….. American Citizen deserves this!!!!
Better yet, let’s address the war in Iraq and all the money we have spent there thus far. Perhaps we could stop spending over $10 million dollars per month and a cumulative total thus far of $648 Million in a war that has all but bankrupted this country!!! Perhaps we can stop spending our hard earned and easily taken tax dollar to fund and take care of every other country and the illegal citizens that come over for their free meal ticket at our expense! As of this past March the census bureau stated that there was at least 11.9 million illegal immigrants in the United States. And those are just the ones that we know about! In reality most of us realize that it is more likely 20 Million illegal immigrants! And while we are at it, let us also finally stop all of the foolish and wasteful Pork Barrel Spending that I mentioned above and stop all of this sugar coated tax dollar rip offs that already plague “we” the American Taxpayers!
Therefore, please vote “NO” on this newly revised deal of yet another gigantically blind “tax payer” $700 Billion Dollar Band-Aid!
Let’s stop the blind and wasteful spending and fix the problems where they lay! And let’s address the problems wherever they might be rather it be in the Private Sectors and/or our elected Government! And let us please stop encouraging people to live off of our already overburden credit system and stop their foolish behavior of spending way beyond their financial means!!!
In closing, for God’s Sake, people of this country please don’t put something like this 700 Billion dollar dept and tax burden on our grand and great grandchildren! As the recent Economic Stimulus Package already put enough damage and burden on our own Children’s Tax Generation! HOW SAD!!! And How Down Right Disgusting It Was To Put This And These Types Of Burdens On Our Children and Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren’s Generations…….
Signed
Steven Hollingsworth
A “Natural Born” US Citizen
And A Voter / Supporter Of Yours Phil! (I have been since your very beginning!!!)