Merry Christmas! Bailout now has something for everyone
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That was then: ‘We will not Christmas-tree* this bill,’ Sen. Charles Schumer said of the just-released Paulson bailout plan. ‘The times are too urgent. Everyone has their own desires and needs. It’s going to have to wait.’
This is now, from the Associated Press:
The Senate has sweetened its $700 billion rescue package for tottering financial companies with tax breaks broad enough to save 20 million people an average $2,000 a year in higher taxes and narrow enough to help makers of wooden toy bow-and-arrow sets.
Note: That is not a typo; it says ‘wooden toy bow-and-arrow sets.’ You know, the kind you find under the Christmas tree.
Lobbyists for restaurants, the solar power industry and other businesses hunted votes Wednesday for the $700 billion financial industry bailout package, touting new provisions that leaders added in hopes of finally pushing the bill through Congress.
Blood pressure alert: It gets worse if you keep reading,
Working off a color-coded spread sheet listing House members whose “no†votes sank the bill in that chamber on Monday, business groups contacted dozens of lawmakers — at home and in Washington — to seek their support. By late afternoon, that list showed five legislators who’d voted “no†now leaning toward supporting an overhauled version of the bill the House rejected by 23 votes.
*The expression ‘Christmas tree,’ used in relation to a piece of pending legislation, refers to the practice of decorating a bill with unrelated goodies and handouts for the sole purpose of winning votes. Along with the stolen base, the root beer float and Britney Spears, it is one of America’s gifts to the world.
-- Peter Viles
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Photo Credit: Associated Press