Senate Bailout Bill Sweetners

Perhaps we should have titled this editorial "See the political piggies feeding at the trough"? After digging into several sources to find out just what this massive, over $700 billion bill contained, it has become painfully obvious that one of the primary purposes of the bailout bill is to provide earmarks to special interests in a bill that will not be vetoed. In other words, the boys and girls on Capitalk Hill are trying to sneak their pet projects through by taking advantage of what we are told is an emergency.

Taxpayers For Common Sense has a good piece listing ten of the more obvious pieces of pork [READ MORE]. This include such vital matters as:

1. Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children

2. Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility

3. Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

4. Sec. 301. Extension and modification of research credit

5. Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation

6. Sec. 601. Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.

7. Sec. 201. Deduction for state and local sales taxes (States that benefit include Texas, Nevada, Florida, Washington and Wyoming)

8. Sec 502. Provisions related to film and television productions

9. Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds

10. Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa

There are other items that have been widely reported on various news sources, icluding FOXNews.com. Amongst these are :

—Provide business tax breaks, including for production of, investment in, and use of renewable fuels.

—Require group health plans that include mental health or addiction treatment to provide coverage for those conditions that is equitable to other medical coverage.

—Increase personal credits against the AMT, shielding more than 20 million taxpayers from the tax.

—Grant tax relief to victims of natural disasters in the Midwest and elsewhere.

—Extend through 2011 a program that funds rural schools and local governments that have low property-tax bases because they lie within or are adjacent to federal lands.

—Extend until end of 2009 individual tax breaks, including deductions for higher education costs and teachers' personal expenses.

—Increase, from $100,000 to $250,000, the limit on federal bank deposit insurance.

As you can see, what started out as an emergency measure to bailout Fannie Mae and others has grown into a huge conglomeration of items that are not at all related to the supposed crisis.

"Why has this happened?" you might ask. Political greed and an attempt to buy the votes of members of the House by funding their pet projects and causes.

In our digging around we have noticed something else that's rather interesting. We are not finding any detailed information explaining how the bailout and all the "sweeteners" are going to be paid for. We know that we taxpayers are going to be stuck with the bill but how is the bill going to be paid for? Even if you repeal the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and immediately stop the Iraqi war, the government still does not have enough money and we would be paying higher taxes. [READ MORE]

So we are about to go $700 billion further in the hole to cover up for Congressional malfeasance (READ MORE], and we haven't started to talk about the planned expenditure of either Presidential candidate, especially Obama.

Isn't it about time we told the big spenders in Congress that they can pack their bags and get out of town and out of our lives? It is not to late to take our country back.