Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes both houses; Bush signs it. They hurry if they have to

dixiehack · Oct 2, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR

ScribePharisee said:

Zeke12 said:

Harkin is up but safe, voted aye.

Coleman's in a dogfight, voted aye.

McConnel's in a tough one, voted aye.

Stevens is a dead man walking, voted aye.
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Another web search revealed that Imhofe (OK) who is up for re-election, voted against it.
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He could have a lifetime appointment and I'd bet he'd still vote No.

dixiehack · Oct 2, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR

I have no idea if this has been posted elsewhere, but David Brooks hit this one out of the park and clean into the Potomac.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And let us recognize above all the 228 who voted no — the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them.

House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.
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zeke12 · Oct 2, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR

Damn right.

2muchcoffeeman · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR (vote any minute now)

CNBC expects a House vote momentarily.

Brooklyn Bridge · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR (vote any minute now)

anyone else see how the original request from Hank Paulson was 3-pages? Its now over 450 pages, filled with pork barrel spending. I say screw it. Let the economy fix itself. If they want to help someone, give money directly to those about to face foreclosure and small businesses.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/09/29/daily70.html

Flying Headbutt · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR (vote any minute now)

This is the letter circulating among the House GOP today. It's from the ranking GOPer on the Ways and Means Committee.

Dear Republican Colleague:

Since the Senate decided earlier this week to attach the tax extenders bill to the financial stabilization bill, questions have been raised about some of the individual items and whether they are “pork” or “earmarks.”

While I share concerns about the littering of the tax code with extraneous provisions, the complaints about this bill are unfounded.

First, and most importantly, the vast majority of the package includes provisions that enjoy near unanimous support on both sides of the aisle and that we need to act upon this year.

For example, the package includes an extension of the patch of the Alternative Minimum Tax. Congress recognized that the failure to act would unacceptably drag twenty-one million additional families into the AMT’s clutches based on their 2008 income, with the total tax increase on American families exceeding $62 billion. So it is not surprising that the House voted 393 to 30 in favor of H.R. 7005, which extends the patch.

It also extends the now-expired research and development tax credit, which encourages cutting edge research – and the good jobs it supports – to be conducted here in the U.S. Legislation to extend the credit, H.R. 2138, introduced by Sandy Levin and Dave Camp and cosponsored by more than 160 of our colleagues, shows the popularity of this provision.

Similarly, a critical extension of the current-law tax treatment of the financial services income of U.S. firms competing abroad is both good policy and widely supported. Introduced by Congressman Neal, a bill making this provision permanent has been cosponsored by 26 of the other 40 Members of the Ways and Means Committee. Although I am not among this bill’s cosponsors (I chose to cosponsor few bills referred to Ways & Means when I became Ranking Member last year), I have been a long-time supporter of this provision and strongly believe its extension is critical to the competitiveness of our financial services industry.

The bill also extends many current-law provisions with broad support, including those that allow taxpayers to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal income tax returns; encourage the production of electricity by wind, solar and biomass; and reimburse teachers who pay out-of-pocket for classroom expenses.

The package also includes several important new provisions that enjoy wide support, including:

Tax relief for areas hit hard by natural disasters, including for victims of the Midwest floods this summer and along the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Ike.
Mental health parity.
A new tax credit for buyers of plug-in hybrid autos.

While those provisions form the bulk of the bill, both in terms of the number of provisions and the tax relief provided, some have tried to focus on a few items that, while smaller in size, are still important and deserve our support. Please allow me to set the record straight on some of them.

Rum Cover-Over. An expiring tax provision that directs the Treasury to return to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands the excise taxes collected on rum produced on those islands but sold in the fifty states is not a hand-out to the rum makers. In reality, the money is returned to their respective governments for general use. And this is hardly special treatment; it reflects long-standing practice with respect to excise taxes paid on goods produced on those islands and sold in the fifty states.

Puerto Rico / Section 199 Deduction. Similarly, a provision extending the ability of businesses on Puerto Rico to claim the benefits of the Section 199 manufacturing deduction is critically important to ensuring that businesses on that island are not treated less favorably than others in the United States. It is not an earmark. It applies to all types of businesses with manufacturing income and is a matter of fairness.

Children’s Arrows. While this might make for good headlines, the facts show that this is an entirely reasonable provision. There are a series of excise taxes on recreational sporting equipment and motor fuels. The revenue raised from these taxes is placed in a trust fund. The trust fund is used for wildlife preservation and maintenance of recreational areas. This section of the extenders bill corrects a mistake made in the 2004 JOBS Act, when the excise tax on arrows was changed from a percentage tax to a flat tax of 39 cents each. As a result of the switch to a flat tax rate, wooden practice arrows that can cost just 30 cents each are now subject to a 39 cents excise tax on each arrow – more than doubling the cost of these arrows. The fixed tax 39 cent per arrow might be well-suited to higher-priced hunting and professional arrows, which sell for up to $100 apiece, but it is not suited for the less costly practice arrows used by summer camps and the Boy Scouts. These practice arrows should be made exempt from the excise tax as this legislation would do. Moreover, there is a clear precedent for exempting practice arrows not used for hunting, because section 4161 of the tax code exempts youth bows, defined by their draw weight, from these taxes.

Motorsports Facilities. This provision, extending the current depreciation rule for motorsports facilities, applies to hundreds of racetracks across the country. These facilities have a very large economic and job-creation impact on a regional and national level. The fact that H.R. 1304, a bill to make the rule permanent, has been cosponsored by almost 100 Members, including 54 Republicans, shows the breadth and depth of support for this provision. Moreover, this is not a tax cut. Rather, it allows faster recovery of expenses that would be deductible in later years without the provision. As such, the provision costs less over ten years than it does in its first year.

Film and Television. This provision allows a single-year deduction for all film and television productions up to $15 million ($20 million if the costs are incurred in economically depressed areas). The provision applies to qualifying film and television productions throughout the country, in any state. It is designed to discourage small, independent productions from being shot in other countries, like Canada, which provide attractive tax incentives to lure them from the U.S. Like the racetrack provision, this is not a permanent tax decrease. It is rather a timing shift that accelerates the ability of taxpayers to use deductions that would otherwise be delayed, thereby creating a cash-flow benefit without reducing total taxes paid to the Treasury.

As I noted, the facts behind these provisions don’t support the scary headlines that opponents are trying to write. But that is not surprising given the strong support that bills extending the expiring provisions have enjoyed in the past.

In May, when we offered a Motion to Recommit on a tax bill that included long-term extensions of expiring provisions, Republicans voted YES by margin of 201 to 0. And last week, Dave Camp offered the Senate-passed extenders bill – identical in every way to the package being voted on today - as our Motion to Recommit H.R. 7060. Republicans unanimously voted against the Democrats on a procedural move designed to prevent a debate on the motion.

The Internal Revenue Code clearly needs a thorough overhaul, whether in the context of fundamental tax reform or routine extension of expiring tax provisions.

It seems clear to me, however, that the sudden hand-wringing about the Senate-passed extenders package is more about efforts to fight the financial stabilization bill than the tax provisions themselves.

The financial stabilization bill, which we will vote on later today, is one that all Members must consider carefully. Members who oppose the bill can and should express their concerns. But in their zeal to convince others to join them in voting against it, I fear some may have misstated the facts behind provisions in the Senate-passed extenders bill. I hope this has helped to provide more background on these specific items.

Please do not hesitate to call me if you want to discuss these or any of the other items attached to the bill by the Senate.

Jim McCrery

Member of Congress
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2muchcoffeeman · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate, heads to HoR (vote any minute now)

Passed 263-171. Dow's 300-point rally has dropped off a bit.

Guy_Incognito · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate and now also passes HoR

dixiehack said:

I have no idea if this has been posted elsewhere, but David Brooks hit this one out of the park and clean into the Potomac.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And let us recognize above all the 228 who voted no the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them.

House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, theyve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.
Click to expand...

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This seems a bit shortsighted now that they passed what seems like a better bill.

poindexter · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate and now also passes HoR

How long before the next bailout?

I say two weeks.

dixiehack · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate and now also passes HoR

Maybe they figured out that the views of a majority of callers isn't always the same as the views of a majority of constituants. More likely, business owners (a lot of whom form the backbone of their donations base) told them that the money was about to dry up - literally in this case.

2muchcoffeeman · Oct 3, 2008

Re: Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes Senate and now also passes HoR

Signed into law.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081003/ap_on_go_co/financial_meltdown_2043

NoOneLikesUs · Oct 3, 2008

The earmark letter doesn't explain shit. He just uses bullshit jargon to justify all of it.

A more in depth look at the tax extenders

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Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes both houses; Bush signs it. They hurry if they have to

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Bailout/rescue 2.0 passes both houses; Bush signs it. They hurry if they have to

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