Leave it to the U.S. Senate to take a flawed but necessary bailout bill and make it far worse by festooning it with a host of special-interest tax “earmarks.” And to compound the outrage, they then used an unconstitutional ruse to force the bloated “emergency bailout” bill down the House’s collective throat. Among the tax earmarks in the bill are special breaks for a grab box of items and industries ranging from auto racing tracks to film-and-television production and wool research. Also included, believe it or not, are earmarks for makers of “certain wooden arrow shafts.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Senate limits this particular favor only to arrows “designed for children” and measuring “5.16 inches or less in diameter.” Another provision would give special tax breaks to litigants in the Exxon Valdez oil-spill case – people who already have been rewarded by the courts – at a cost to taxpayers of $49 million.
If the whole financial system really is on the verge of collapse, why are senators wasting precious time doing the bidding of special-interest lobbyists seeking tax breaks for race tracks, toys and wool research? Can’t senators help themselves? Is their self-dealing so deeply ingrained that they think nothing of exploiting a national economic emergency to grease the way for special favors that will bring in contributions to their campaign war chests?
What makes this worse is the legislative legerdemain of breathtaking gall. First, the Senate is clearly violating both the word and spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution requires all revenue bills to originate in the House. To avoid that requirement, the Senate attached its porked-up bailout package as an amendment to an unrelated spending bill on mental health claims that was previously passed by the House.
Second, the Senate is trying to strong-arm the House by including in the bill a tax extender measure, which would easily pass on its own because it includes a temporary fix for the “Alternative Minimum Tax” (AMT) that would otherwise impose a huge tax hike on middle-class couples. The Senate is telling House members who opposed the bailout that they will be blamed for not fixing the AMT if they oppose the larded-up bailout bill. This is blackmail, pure and simple. A bill as momentous, and as controversial, as the financial bailout should sink or swim on its own, with legislators accountable for their votes for and against it, unhindered by extraneous considerations. The Senate is trying to give the House – and American taxpayers – the proverbial “offer they can’t refuse.” The House should in response produce a clean version of the bill and shame the Senate into passing it.
