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Mercnbeth -> RE: "the rescue package"? has passed (10/3/2008 4:34:42 PM)
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CRITICAL ITEMS GETTING MONEY TO RESOLVE THE CURRENT "CRISIS" ~ or ~ YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
For the record, so far this is what I've found in the 'Rewarding Failure' legislation:
quote:
- “Motorsports racing track facilities” A Bloomberg article notes this “will save NASCAR track builders $109 million this year.”
- Rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
- Investors in the District of Columbia or on Indian reservations.
- Building and renovating restaurants.
- Book donations to public schools
- Recipients of settlement payments from Exxon Valdez litigation
- Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Program,” expected to cost $3.2 billion over six years
Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28851
Also noteworthy from the same source:
quote:
The most egregious, most frightening aspect of this bill is its hidden attack on every aspect of our economy under the cover of anti-carbon measures contained in what is essentially an energy bill tacked on to the bailout -- an energy bill which would not pass Congress were it to come up for a vote. If you own a power plant, a steel factory, a dairy farm, or an airline company, or maybe even just a car, this is a large caliber weapon aimed directly at you. It’s the predicate to taxing carbon emissions.
Section 116 of the bill adds language to the tax code which includes “industrial source carbon dioxide” in a list of items which can be classified as sources of “qualified income,” along with things like fertilizer and timber. However, since nobody produces “industrial source CO2” as a product for sale, this change is unclear.
the bailout bill also contains the “Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008,” which is also known by the bill number S.558. The measure requires group insurance plans to have deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and annual and lifetime limits for mental health and drug addition/abuse coverage which are no more restrictive or expensive for the policy holder than those same items for other medical and surgical coverage. The measure would apply to firms with 50 or more employees.
The full CBO report makes the following statements:
-- “The direct costs of the mandate (on the private sector) in S. 558 would be $1.5 billion in 2009, rising to $3.4 billion in 2013.”
-- “Enacting S. 558 would increase federal direct spending for Medicaid by $280 million over the 2009-2012 period and by $790 million over the 2009-2017 period.” There are also another $485 million of “discretionary costs” by 2017.
-- “More of an employee's compensation (will be) received in the form of nontaxable employer-paid premiums, and less in the form of taxable wages… CBO estimates that federal tax revenues would fall by $140 million in 2009 and by $3 billion over the 2009-2017 period.”
-- “Responses would include reductions in the number of employers offering insurance to their employees and in the number of employees enrolling in employer-sponsored insurance…”
The results of good intent?
quote:
The bill doubles the subsidy for biodiesel production from 50 cents per gallon to $1.00 per gallon. Doesn’t the Senate realize that we can’t save the world by burning our food? Did they not remember the huge increase in food prices over the past two years due in large part to these subsidies diverting food and feed crops into our gas tanks?
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