REGION: Wooden arrows and economic prosperity
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | ∞
Do wooden arrows and rum hold the key to America's economic prosperity?
Tax breaks for both have been tacked onto the latest version of an economic bailout plan the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Friday.
Two local lawmakers who voted against the first version are also opposing the modified measure.
Oregon's U.S. senators put in a provision to the Economic Emergency Stabilization to erase a 39-cent excise tax on the sale of wooden arrows. The break would cost the Treasury about $2 million over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
The add-ons known as "earmarks" don't stop with wooden arrows. Others were allowed to be added as congressional leaders searched for affirmative votes on the measure.
Consequently, what was once a three-page bill is now more than 440 pages.
Included in the new pages are tax breaks for racetracks and a one-year extension of an excise tax rebate on rum imported from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The rum provision would cost about $192 million.
There also are tax incentives for film and TV productions that keep their filming within the U.S. Those provisions would cost nearly $500 million over 10 years, according to congressional accountants.
As it stood Thursday, U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, planned to vote against the amended bill.
Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said Thursday that the earmarks added this week are just one more concern.
"The pork projects and throwing all these things into it aren't helpful," Hill said. "It would have been better to open it up to more provisions to help all of the economy."
Hunter, whose district includes portions of North County, views the new version as essentially the same as the one that the House defeated Monday, spokesman Joe Kasper said Thursday.
Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said his boss was undecided as of Thursday. Bilbray opposed the first version.
U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack voted for the first version. It was not immediately clear whether she has changed her stance since Monday's vote.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
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Typical.... wrote on Oct 2, 2008 7:13 PM:while our President and the Democratic parts of Congress are screaming the world is coming to an end, and that they HAVE to get this 700 billion dollar tax-payer rip-off finished, it's just another day on Capitol Hill, the elected whores who reportedly represent those who elected them, continue to pack the pork barrel projects into this "emergency" bail-out bill...These elected whores can be bought by those who they throw these add-ons for, by simple cheap campaign contributions, they line their pockets and coffers, as they sell middle America down the drain...
ashamed American wrote on Oct 2, 2008 7:21 PM:Talk about low-life politics.When are we the people demand that all earmarks be outlawed. Any chance of publishing the names of the earmarkers so the public can know who the scum are?
callfax or e-mail wrote on Oct 2, 2008 10:20 PM:your representatives right NOW and tell them to vote NO
Constitutional Violation wrote on Oct 2, 2008 11:07 PM:'All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives' (Article 1 Section 7).
The House will return a spending bill originated in the Senate with a note reminding the Senate of the House's prerogative on these matters.
Thus, the Senate had to find an existing bill already sent over from the house for attaching the bailout. The pork was a necessary consequence of the US Constitution.
So much for McCain's pledge to defeat pork. If he wants the legislation bad enough, he will turn a blind eye to ear marking and pork.
To Bilbray wrote on Oct 2, 2008 11:23 PM:From an independent voter. Vote yes for the bailout (plus the pork), and I will not vote for you.
Reinflates Housing wrote on Oct 2, 2008 11:23 PM:The goal of this bailout is to reinflate the housing market so that Wall Street can return to fat profits from derivatives and other funny paper schemes, with the net effect being that middle-class taxpayers will not be able to afford a home.
Mr. Bilbray wrote on Oct 3, 2008 1:19 AM:had better vote against this "scam". He will never again get my vote if he goes "yes". Mostly the Dems caused this problem, let them pass this "turkey",let them take the fall. Who signed onto the earmarks??? Names please. No no no to the bailout/rescue (known as we will screw you) plan.
Also ashamed wrote on Oct 3, 2008 3:51 AM:Watching this process makes you want to run for the showers. Are we really this base? I guess so. Sigh...............
Ken wrote on Oct 3, 2008 4:44 AM:Three pages or four hundred...VOTE NO!. Let the firms suffer a bit aof pain. They may have been pressured by Demos to make bad loans to folks who really couldn't afford a home, BUT...were they compelled to do so? If they made poor decisions, then they gotta take their medicine, even to the point of failure. That's the American way. In a free market, it's survival of the fittest.
Vote wrote on Oct 3, 2008 6:51 AM:No on the Bail Out
Vote Yes on tossing all of the Congress out!
no bailout wrote on Oct 3, 2008 7:53 AM:Yes for the disintegration of the middle class. Us SoCals can handle this, we all live within our means. California is begging for 7 billion dollars right now.
Are you mavericks against that too? Get a clue, we're heading for a depression.
NO wrote on Oct 3, 2008 9:52 AM:to the bailout and to California. Make them live within their means and stop the pork. We're watching Brian, voting for the sweetners will be the height of hypocracy.
Bailout is through wrote on Oct 3, 2008 10:46 AM:Alright! The bailout was approved! Tough luck to all you nay-sayers; deal with that! You will all be thankful in the end that our legislators are smarter than all of you.
Jolly Roger wrote on Oct 3, 2008 11:28 AM:Wooden arrows and Rum ... the pirates of congress are raping an pillaging once again!
Bailout was right wrote on Oct 3, 2008 1:20 PM:All you know-it-all's have no clue what this country needed. We needed an economic stimulus and luckily, Congress passed it and the Pres signed. You will be eating your words when the country is on the right track again. Thank goodness for lawmakers that have the country in their best interests.
To Bailout is right wrote on Oct 3, 2008 4:52 PM:is wrong. This was a huge scam perpetrated on US taxpayers. Now Arnold is begging for money, California is broke. No kidding. I have been blogging no more spending for FIVE years. No one listens. Vote the legislator spenders out of office. Recall Arnold, he is worse than Davis. AND the best part, Prop T wants your money for the loser schools in Escondido, No on T.
Ed wrote on Oct 3, 2008 7:09 PM:Republicans have proven that they can win elections however dubious, and have also proven that they cannot govern. A Republican in the White House and majorities in the House and Senate for 6 years and look where we are today.
to Jolly Roger wrote on Oct 3, 2008 7:19 PM:ho ho ho ho its a pirates life for them
.......pass the the rum will ya
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