Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Behemoth Bailout Bill

I wonder if the function

y = f(t)

where y = dollar amount of non-credit market tax breaks and subsidies
and t = days that Congress has to write the emergency stabilization bill (aka as the bailout)

converges to a positive number or if it goes to infinity. I suspect the latter.

A good story on the "children's bow and arrow" tax break is here. CNBC almost makes it sound like it is a reasonable thing to include in the bill.

My question: If the arrow tax is such a bad thing, why not get it taken care of in a bill that is at least somewhat related to taxes?

Why can't our elected congresspeople have the courage to put this bill to a straightforward up or down vote? Can it really be that these pork barrel items are needed to get support? Someone is opposed to the bill in principle but will vote for it if a business in their area gets some kind of break? Please give me a break.

And, where is dear John McCain, he of principled opposition to earmarks and government waste? How can he ever again rail against earmarks if he is not willing to take a stand right now?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This bill is going to hurt McCain. He voted for it and had tons of earmarks. It is going to undercut his arguments and more importantly his brand of a fighter against wasteful spending.

Ak

Robert G. Hansen said...

I agree. It would have been risky, but very consistent with his philosophy, for McCain to have opposed it.