All posts in the topic Bailout Pork (Short link)
Summary
- There are 7 posts — by 6 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Laura Waterman Wittstock at Oct 06 16:47 UTC
Have you heard about the outrageous pork attached to the
latest Bailout bill? Our elected officials get up there
and grandstand about how this bill has to happen now to
avert disaster and then they attach hundreds millions in
outrageous pork to the bill? I think every single elected
official who votes yes on this thing needs to be removed
from office. How stupid are these guys? Don't they know
that every American who cares is watching very closely?
Don't they realize they should be sneaking in the pork on
bills no one cares about?
I can see Obama and Pelosi and gang going for this corrupt
crap, but McCain and Bush and other Republicans? None of
them are fit for office. We have the serious lack of
integrity and leadership in congress. We have a media that
is out of control with bias. No wonder the American people
don't trust government any more. Throw all the bums out
and bring in outsiders like Palin. She should be on top of
the ticket not VP.
Lee Surma
Maple Grove
I'm not sure I can agree with Lee's conclusion, but I will tell you I think we were sold down the river. There is one thing about the bailout I've noticed. There are lot of folks who traditionally find themselves on opposite sides of the political debate finding themselves on the same side. Of course, this could be either for or against the bailout bill. Mike Fratto Payne Phalen Please help those who don't get enough to eat. http://oyh.org http://hungersolutions.org The future depends more on what we do between now and then Than what we did in the past.
FWIW, public opinion seems to be shifting in support of the "bailout" bill.
It's beginning to sink in to people that the unavailability of credit is going
to have severe consequences to ordinary people. Their retirement funds, jobs
and ability to send their kids to college are in jeopardy. Calls to
representatives are now said to be 50/50 instead of the 90/10 opposed from a
few days ago.
Having said that, I agree with Lee (maybe for the first time) that larding the
bill with pork was unconscionable.
I don't remember the rules about citing other sources. This came from a link
on MSCNBC to Taxpayers for Common Sense. They note:
//many of the provisions are “extenders.” Meaning that what this legislation
does in many cases is simply extend existing law that was set to expire at the
end of this year, and in some cases it reinstates existing legislation that
expired earlier in the year. Many of these provisions had already been voted
on and passed earlier this year, but had not been voted on in the House. So
the Senate simply stuck them on to the underlying legislation. This is also
true for other things tacked onto the bill, such as the Alternative Minimum Tax
patch.//
Although we all wonder about things like the children's wooden arrows, I think
getting indignant about these additions right now is a waste of time. Like it
or not, our governnment fiddles with taxes and incentives as part of doing
business. If some legislators were persuaded to vote because of a provision
that was likely to pass anyway, I'm glad the devious arm-twisters got the job
done. Frankly, I can't afford the luxury of standing on principle. I've been
hurt badly and will be hurt worse before this is over. I'd like to see some of
the robber barons sent to jail (after public flogging), but first we need to
take care of their victims.
And please remember that the Ramstad/Wellstone mental health parity bill has
been in the works for years. It could be the most significant piece of
legislation since the Disability Act.
Gail O'Hare
Highland
I guess I wouldn't agree with the characterization of "pork" for some of the
added measures to the bailout bill.
The mental health/addiction therapy parity measure (aka the "Wellstone bill")
has been in the works for years, as others have noted. It certainly makes
sense to treat these illnesses as illnesses. I am completely in favor of
passing them.
I also think that providing a consistent tax or spending initiative for
alternative energies makes complete sense. In fact, this is the one part of
the bailout bill that DOES make sense to me. It is called creating a green
economy. If we would make those wind turbines instead of importing them from
Europe, it would provide American jobs. If we would also make photovoltaic
panels, small hydro, solar hot water (and radiant) solar panels, and so forth,
it would save us many trillions of dollars in imported energy costs, plus lower
CO2 output. Plus jobs.
I have mixed feelings about modification of the Alternative Minimum Tax
requirements. With inflation over the years, I see the point. But I think
that the richest among us have been under-taxed for years, while the rest of us
watch our bridges fall down.
To me, it is the bailout itself which is absolutely outrageous. We have been
living in this fantasy world, spending borrowed money while producing nothing.
We have shipped our manufacturing jobs overseas and called it globalization.
We have put this inane three trillion dollar war in Iraq on a credit card. We
have refused to raise taxes for the services we demand. The whole thing is a
very fragile house of cards, with our McMansions and SUVs and Wall*Mart crap
all placed on a melting credit card issued by a bank in some Asian financial
center.
So irresponsible use of credit is the problem. And how do we solve it? By
putting another trillion dollars on the old charge account! How will that
help?
To my way of thinking, it is well time to stop wasting our money on
billionaires compensation packages. It is well time to stop borrowing money to
pay mercenaries to kill people overseas or to build fancy arms that explode and
kill people. If we still have any money left over, we should be spending it on
the massive problems we face. We should pour billions into university research
to find us clean energy sources. We should be putting up wind and solar and
geothermal and tide and methane installations. Our carpenters and electricians
are looking for work in Canada and even Dubai. Why not put them to work right
here, if we really have a trillion dollars to spare. Now THAT would provide
some long-term solutions to our liquidity problems. Because we really can't
just keep borrowing all that money from China forever.
In other words...
We should be throwing the bums out of Congress and sending Barack Obama to the
White House!
Sarah Palin brought in high school chums (and her husband) to help
her in the Alaska state offices. We would have to go back to Andrew
Jackson to see similar executive recklessness on a presidential
level. Dumbing down the presidency is clearly not the answer in the
global economy in which we now find ourselves.
The pork is in the market as well as in the congress. A general clean
up is called for and it will be painful.
Palin is far too shaky to hold on to the reins of the national
government.