Your Tax Dollars at Work...
The original 3 page Bailout Bill became the 451 page "Economic Rescue Act." Such a lot of people being rescued here. Some of the provisions:
Sec. 101: Extension of alternative minimum tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits.
Sec. 102: Extension of increased alternative minimum tax exemption amount.
Sec. 201: Deduction for state and local sales taxes.
Sec. 202: Deduction of qualified tuition and related expenses.
Sec. 203: Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Sec. 204: Additional standard deduction for real property taxes for nonitemizers.
Sec. 205: Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes.
Sec. 304: Extension of look-thru rule for related controlled foreign corporations.
Sec. 305: Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements; 15-year straight-line cost recovery for certain improvements to retail space.
Sec. 307: Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property.
Sec. 308: Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 309: Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 310: Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 311: Extension of election to expense advanced mine safety equipment.
Sec. 312: Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
Sec. 314: Indian employment credit.
Sec. 315: Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations.
Sec. 316: Railroad track maintenance.
Sec. 317: Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
Sec. 318: Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
Sec. 319: Extension of work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.
Sec. 320: Extension of increased rehabilitation credit for structures in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
Sec. 321: Enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions.!
Se c. 322: Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 323: Enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.
Sec. 324: Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
Sec. 325: Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
Sec. 401: Permanent authority for undercover operations [as related to tax provisions].
Sec. 402: Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities [as related to tax provisions].
Sec. 501: $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 502: Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503: Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Sec. 504: Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Sec. 505: Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as five-year property.
Sec. 506: Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer’s liability by tax return preparer.
Sec. 601: Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
Sec. 602: Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.
Sec. 702: Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados and flooding.
Sec. 704: Temporary tax-exempt bond financing and low-income housing tax relief for areas.
Sec. 709: Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters.
Sec. 710: Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 711: Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property.
It seems that $700B was too stingy; Congress had to tack on another $100B in tax breaks and subsidies. McCain promised not to vote for it if it contained a lot of earmarks. Apparently, this doesn't meet the threshold. I wonder how many earmarks would be required for him to reject it?
The bill is also curious in that it says that there cannot be more than $700B "outstanding at any one time." Does this mean there could be more than $700B involved in this? If they had wanted to limit it to a mere $700B, they could have said so.
The bill also bumps the debt ceiling to $11.3 Trillion. With a T.
The fun never stops.
3 comments:
John, thanks for holding the line. It won't make any difference to what they do in Washington, but it is good reinforcement for those of us who hold to the distributist truth.
If this isn't abominable I don't know what is.
Pete
Yuck.
"Sec. 401: Permanent authority for undercover operations [as related to tax provisions].
Sec. 402: Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities [as related to tax provisions]."
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Something similar to this was passed by the IRS earlier: "Announcement 2007-70: Suspension of Tax-Exempt Status of an Organization Identified With Terrorism"
I post this because I wonder if the three are related. I never did figure what was changed in the 2007-70. Who is gaining this "authority" - and who is losing it?
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This might be good:
"Sec. 601: Secure rural schools and community self-determination program."
Though... it's probably some grave evil.
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It amazes me how well the fear mongering works though. Several folks I know tell me this could magically prevent a downward spiral of no credit -> no business -> no jobs -> etc.
Yet America continues to drown in tsunami after tsunami of immigration. If jobs are the concern, enact a temporary moratorium on the immigration. Or of course cut spending overseas and elsewhere, or raise trade barriers...
Btw, Buchanan has a pretty good article up on this bailout and McCain:
"But rather than denounce the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi-Barney Frank plan as a rip-off of taxpayers, lacerate Obama and Co. for bedding down with the kleptocrats of Fannie Mae, and advancing his own McCain plan, McCain played the establishment man."
"In recent years, we have seen the MARs rise again and again in roaring rebellion. But, invariably, when these rebellions occur, John McCain may be found inside the castle walls."
Buchanan's calling the election in favor of Obama, which... might be a good thing. In 2010 and 2012 perhaps we'll get a populist up there who'll be more friendly to distributism. Really, in my state Bob Conley is running against Grahamnesty. You might like him - at least so far as politicians go.
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Thanks for your blogging btw. When good men don't blog, bloggers get economic news from libertarians, haha. Don't ever abandon us to the libertarians! Well, that is if your other affairs are in order of course. Take care.
The $700B is not the total bill. They made it look that way with the concurrent increase in the federal debt limit of 700bn. The 700bn is the limit of how much of the bad debt they can hold at 1 time. So if they buy 700bn in bad debt, sell it off at 40 cents on the dollar, they can then buy, not 280bn, but another 700bn in bad debt instruments.
There is literally no limit to the amount this could cost us. The good news is that the greater part of the money will go to overseas investors. That's the one provision that both Paulson and Bush said would guarantee a veto, were it removed. That's the non-negotiable, that foreign investors get bailed out.
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