The Senate passed the new, expanded bailout bill last night, lured by the promise of Puerto Rican Rum, Auto Racing Tracks, and Wool Research, among other pork. John McCain voted for it despite being against regulation and pork barrel spending… the sweeteners were just too sweet to resist. The bill will now go to the House, which is expected to vote by tomorrow.
The bill, now 451 pages, as opposed to the original 2.5, added provisions to draw more House Republican support. It contains renewable energy tax breaks for individuals and businesses, research and development credit for businesses, and credit to enable individuals to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal returns. However, the bill is largely the same as the one that failed in the House.
Here’s more specifics on the bill:
- The Senate bill is also similar in that it includes a number of provisions that supporters say would protect taxpayers. One would direct the president to propose a bill requiring the financial industry to reimburse taxpayers for any net losses from the program after five years. And the Treasury would be allowed to take ownership stakes in participating companies.
- Like the House version, the Senate bill includes a stipulation that the Treasury set up an insurance program - to be funded with risk-based premiums paid by the industry - to guarantee companies’ troubled assets, including mortgage-backed securities, purchased before March 14, 2008.
Read the full story here.
Bill Underwood 3 months ago
To paraphras: Have you no sense of decency senators, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? It’s as if these people are saying “Darn right. We CAN be bought!”
zozo 3 months ago
and the house was bought too.
Michael 3 months ago
I’ve collected even more references to the pork-filled $700 billion pork-filled “bailout plan” which floats those who caused this mess another chance with our money. As a result, I’ve setup bailoutpetition.com. Please sign the petition to repeal this disastrous bailout bill. It’s the only thing left we can do to show Congress how angry we are and to prevent this colossal disaster. http://www.bailoutpetition.com
Mike Griffin 3 months ago
I feel this bill should have passed, but with zero pork. Alot of the votes for were bought.
Lisa 2 months ago
I agree, I think they all had a D. A. A. (Dumb *ss Attack) Giving those who caused this mess another chance with our money. Look what they’ve done with it so far. I believe they went about this all wrong. They should have bailed out the people. What better way then to give them the $700 billion. We need to make a clean sweep of our government, and get these money hungry S.O.B. out of our state offices.