Misery Index

Here are some of the "special-interest" tax cuts, gifts, provisions that will surely help you at tax time with this wonderful $700, err $1.8 billion banker bail out bill.

The bill started at 3 pages, grew to 106 pages, and is now at 451 pages.  Lets take a look.

• 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 (SEC. 504)
• Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (SEC. 308)
• Mine Rescue Teams (SEC. 310)
• Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (SEC. 312)
• Railroads (SEC. 316)
• Auto Racing Tracks (SEC. 317)
• Wool Research (SEC. 325)

Can anyone help me understand what any of these topics have to do with bailing out bankers, helping the US economy, lowering unemployment, lowering interest rates, lowering fuel prices, lowering energy prices (heating/cooling), lower grocery prices, and stimulating the economy?  All this firewood, toilet paper, bill does is guarantee that bankers will not have to stand in breadlines  like the rest of us and will have jobs unlike the rest of us.  They will be like Hoover was in the Great Depression, eating posh meals of roast beef while US taxpayers were eating watered down soup.

I guess rum served at NASCAR running on train tracks, being documented by Hollywood, and being announced by litigants of the Exxon Valdez incident, while souvenirs of wool NASCAR shirts are sold that are made in Puerto Rico is where our society is headed.... Oh, while shooting wooden arrows at NASCAR drivers you don't like.

And if you don't think that Senators have ulterior motives in this bill, for their own purposes...

"Senators attached a provision repealing a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows designed for children to an historic $700 billion bank rescue that is likely to pass tonight. The provision, originally proposed by Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, will save manufacturers such as Rose City Archery in Myrtle Point, Oregon, about $200,000 a year."

Obviously some senators are thinking more about saving their state than the nation.