First of all, this wasn't put forth as the The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 like it was by the House. The Senate version was an amendment to "section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment, and for other purposes."
Uh..yeah. That's a mouthful. But what the heck is going on? That doesn't sound like a bailout bill to me.
DIVISION A—EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION
There it is! There's that pesky Paulson plan! So what did they add? Well, I certainly don't have time to read through all that right now, but according to Bloomberg, it contains:
provisions to repeal "a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows designed for children"
"tax breaks benefiting Hollywood producers, stock-car racetrack owners and Virgin Islands rum-makers"
"[T]he provisions include a research tax credit worth about $8.3 billion a year for companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Harley-Davidson Inc., and subsidies for the overseas financial services earnings of U.S.-based multinational corporations such as General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc."
"[One provision] will save Nascar track builders $109 million this year"
"Several others are new provisions, including two tax breaks worth $478 million over the next decade for movie and television producers who shoot films in the United States."
"The Congressional Budget Office said today the tax provisions will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the legislation doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue increases to keep the budget balanced."
So the $700B bailout is now the $812B bailout. It still sounds like a stupid plan, but hey, at least now we don't have to pay an excise tax on kiddie arrows!
Hopefully I'll get the chance to read through the bill in the next couple of days and post more details.
provisions to repeal "a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows designed for children"
"tax breaks benefiting Hollywood producers, stock-car racetrack owners and Virgin Islands rum-makers"
"[T]he provisions include a research tax credit worth about $8.3 billion a year for companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Harley-Davidson Inc., and subsidies for the overseas financial services earnings of U.S.-based multinational corporations such as General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc."
"[One provision] will save Nascar track builders $109 million this year"
"Several others are new provisions, including two tax breaks worth $478 million over the next decade for movie and television producers who shoot films in the United States."
"The Congressional Budget Office said today the tax provisions will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the legislation doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue increases to keep the budget balanced."
So the $700B bailout is now the $812B bailout. It still sounds like a stupid plan, but hey, at least now we don't have to pay an excise tax on kiddie arrows!
Hopefully I'll get the chance to read through the bill in the next couple of days and post more details.
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