All Congress knows how to do is spend our money. Now the bail out bill is being loaded down with pork.
Loads of Pork, Little Accountability in Senate Bailout Bill: Will the House Balk? Posted Oct 02, 2008 10:11am EDT by Aaron Task in Investing, Recession, Banking Related: ^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC, FNM, FRE, XLF, SPY By a healthy margin, the Senate passed the $700 billion bailout package last night, setting the stage for a do-over in the House, which is expected to vote on the bill Friday. The House rejected the original bill on Monday but the revised bill contains a lot of "sweeteners" designed to garner enough votes, including $100 billion in tax relief, a widening of the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000 and aid to rural schools. But the Senate bill is also laden with pork, including: a.. $223M for Alaskan fisherman b.. $192M for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands c.. $128M for auto racing d.. $33M for companies operating in American Samoa e.. $10M for film & TV production f.. $6M for producers of wooden arrows Those 'earmarks' may not be palatable to many House members, especially those concerned about fiscal spending and/or getting reelected. Notably, overseas markets were mixed in reaction to the Senate passage and U.S. stocks got off to a very weak start Thursday. At 10:15 a.m. EDT, the Dow was down about 200 points, or 2%, while the S&P and Nasdaq were each down about 2.3%. Whether the market is telling us the bill won't work or won't pass the House is unclear -- although maybe the answer is both. Meanwhile, Todd Harrison, CEO of Minyanville.com, says more time should be given to what's not in the legislation. His wish list includes: a.. More protection for savers and penalties for bad actors b.. Regulation of the credit derivatives markets c.. Accountability and culpability for this mess, up and down the food chain --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
