Saturday, October 4, 2008

Can we get a big, fat DUH????

This just in from the AP:


NEW YORK - Washington's financial bailout plan is now law. So the credit spigot will start flowing again, banks will resume lending, and an economic recovery can begin, right?

Wrong. Experts say the most important thing that needs to happen before the $700 billion bailout even has a chance of working: Home prices must stop falling.

Please know that it is taking every ounce of self control I have not to jump right into my monitor and choke somebody.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what the bailout was supposed to DO?? Stop the perilous slide down this slippery slope of easy credit and falling housing prices? If affordable housing is what they're really after, they should stop right now. We have affordable housing right here in Virginia - just ask homeowners who are trying to sell and can't get anywhere near what they owe on their homes.

Now go back and re-read that quote from the AP article above - the part that says "the most important thing that needs to happen BEFORE the $700 billion bailout even HAS A CHANCE OF WORKING."

OK, so where is the bailout bill from God that politicians were begging us to buy into just 48 short hours ago? It's not such a sure thing now that it's passed, is it? But you better believe Nancy Pelosi got her $125 million for research into global warming in that bill. Because whether you and I have houses or credit or retirement accounts, by golly she'll get her pork.

I'm so mad I'm going to eat chocolate.

*edited* Thanks to Anonymous, who shared the rest of the pork included in this bill in the comments section.

Be thankful ~

Karen

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Since it helps to be informed, below is a list of other addendums (not just Pelosi's). Basically, tax breaks for all.
Apparently we, as a county, do not need to pay our bills.

Both major candidates for president voted FOR this bill>

cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands until Jan. 1, 2010, applies to distilled spirits brought into the U.S,

-excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children – language says the tax "shall not apply to any chaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft..." (seriously?!)

-benefits for litigants in the Exxon Valdex litigation (as a reminder, that spill happened in 1988)

-amends the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

-"Heartland and Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief" provides temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 storms, tornadoes, flooding; tax exempt bond financing for low-income housing tax relief for damaged areas

-reporting requirements relating to disaster relief contributions

-energy production incentives for renewable energy sources, including a one-year extension for wind and refined coal facilities, until Jan. 1, 2010; two-year extension for certain other facilities until Jan. 1, 2011; production credit for electricity produced from Marine renewables

-credit for steel industry fuels (also defines "coal waste sludge")

-electric restructuring policy

-carbon mitigation and coal provisions (including expansion of coal-gasification investment credit); expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit, from $1.3 billion to $2.55 billion

-temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of black lung disability trust fund

-tax credit for carbon sequestration

-transportation and domestic fuel security provisions, inclusion of cellulosic biofuel in bonus depreciation for biomass ethanol plant property

-hybrid plug-in credits

-modification of energy efficient appliance credit for appliances made after 2007 ($45 for dishwasher made in 2008 or 2009 "and which uses no more than 324 kilowatt hours per year and 5.8 gallons per cycle") and $75 for dishwasher made in 2008, 2009 or 2010 which uses "no more than 307 kilowatt hours per year and 5 gallons per cycle"

-green building and sustainable design projects bonds

-increase and extension of oil spill liability trust fund tax from 5 cents a barrel to 8 cents a barrel of crude oil or other petroleum products entering the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2017

-The "Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief" section includes: deductions for teacher expenses; additional standard deduction for real property taxes for non-itemizers; Indian employment credit; accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations; railroad track maintenance; 7-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility; enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions; tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia; extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products, wool research fund, wool duty refunds.