5 Comments

• 1. phnx  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 7:26 am

  Instead of $700 Billion its now over $800 Billion as a result of more pork designed to attract specific legislators.

  Brilliant!!!! What crap. All our congresspukes (Dems and republicans) understand is pork pork pork, spend spend spend.

  What is good:

  1. Roll back of Sarbanes Oxley provision to “write to market”

  2. Increase in the FDIC insurance, although they should have also invoked emergency provisions to guaruntee 100% of deposits for one or two years.

  3. Limit the tax write-offs for executive compensation above $500,000 for companies that sell distressed assets to the government.

  4. Prohibit “golden parachutes” for executives of firms that are selling assets directly to the government. If the government purchases from a firm, via auction, $300 million or more in troubled assets, similar limits on bonuses and other executive compensation would apply.

  I’m still looking for more. Unfortunatley, this bill also addresses a number of areas like energy, taxes, environment and others which have no direct bearing on the financial crisis, but address the personal interests of specific legislators.

  What’s bad:

  1. extending tax breaks for motor-sports racing tracks

  2. tax breaks for makers of wooden arrows for children

  3. Give the Treasury secretary broad discretion to buy virtually any distressed asset in an effort to get it off the books of a troubled bank or financial firm and help unclog the credit markets. This is called the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

  4. Provide $250 billion immediately to purchase mortgage-backed securities and other troubled assets, another $100 billion with the president’s authorization and the remaining $350 billion would be subject to separate congressional approval.

  5. Raise the nation’s debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion.

  The bill does virtually nothing to increase liquidity and put the burden of the crisis on the private sector. Unfortunatley the taxpayer gets screwed again.

• 2. Jim Oliver  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm

  What’s really telling in all this is that McCain voted for it, pork and all.

  Quote:

  “Give me the pen, and I’ll veto every single pork-barrel bill Congress sends me, and if they keep sending them to me, I’ll use the bully pulpit to make the people who are wasting your money famous”

  The bailout bill is now a gigantic pork-filled corpse that no doubt will pass both chambers. Obama voted for the bill, which doesn’t surprise me, but what does surprise me is that McCain’s “yes” vote now makes his “I’m going to veto pork” argument completely useless, as it turns out to be just another lie.

  Sorry folks, no matter how you slice it, any sane person would have thought McCain would have vetoed this bill, regardless of the consequences, and called out the pork in it. He could have led the way, saying something like “the original bill was bad enough, this one is intolerable”. Nope. No dice. No leadership. McLie is doomed.

• 3. Eric T  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm

  Jim Oliver- After watching that debate and listening McCain talk for a while about cutting earmarks and pork barrel spending. I was kind of expecting McCain to whip out his “pork sword” and trim off the fat in the bill.

  Him and Obama both supported the bill, they must be convienced it is important to pass. It looks like both these guys are going be tax hikers. I hope whoever wins has some mercy on the lower class once in a while.

  Middle class is 100k-250k, they always get breaks. Both parties pander to them.

  The people at the lowest income levels can’t handle a $2,300 tax. But because we have no voice in government, we will get stuck with it.

  Hopefully Sarah Palin will give an outstanding performance tonight in the debate, and put the Republicans back in the lead.

• 4. Jim Oliver  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm

  Eric,

  I don’t know how much Sarah can help at this point, even if she gets a home run.

  As a side note I’m sure McCain was royally pissed about all the pork in the bill. But he missed a GLORIOUS opportunity to do 2 things:

  1 - Look like a leader, holding the democrats to the fire by voting NO and screaming at the top of his lungs about the pork. Instead today we get a short rant a stupid anti-Biden ad…what a waste. He could have actually show some muscle on this thing but he choked.

  2 - A No vote and a vigorous anti-pork charge would have distracted the voters completely from Katie Couric and her stupid interview. Palin could have led the charge against this thing and just reamed Biden tonight on this one vote…but it didn’t happen. Now Palin has nowhere to go on this, except to claim that McCain showed real bi-partisan spirit in capitulating to the Democrats.

  Not that I’m complaining, mind you…

• 5. Eric T  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 7:07 pm

  Women are excited about her!