Fiscal Cliff Bill Heavily Laden With Pork. Sou-eeee!

As everybody knows, the "fiscal cliff" bill passed the in the wee hours of the morning on New Year's Day, and according to various sources, our so-called representatives only had three minutes to read the bill before voting on the 154-page document.

As most things done in the District of Corruption, there were some ridiculous cling-ons, or "riders" attached to this bill that are nothing but pork give-aways for banks and corporations.

This bill has $43 worth of spending increases for every $1 in spending cuts. Way to go, guys. This has become a sick joke that isn't funny anymore. They tell us in the mainstream media how things need to be cut back, and yet this bill is chock-full of give-aways and sweet deals.

Here's some of the favors Uncle Sugar has done for everybody but us:

•$430 million for Hollywood through “special expensing rules” to encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects.
•$331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50 percent of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.
•$222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.
•$70 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities.”
•$59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon.
•$4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes.

www.zerohedge.com...

Also from the same article:

Some breaks are specialized, like the $11.2 billion, two- year extension of the active financing exception, which lets GE, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Citigroup Inc. (C), among others, defer taxes on financing income they earn outside the U.S. The congressional supporters of this provision include Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican, and Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, both senior members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) benefits from a $650 million tax credit for manufacturing energy-efficient appliances. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and other financial institutions are aided by the $1.8 billion extension of the New Markets Tax Credit for investments in low- income area.

Restaurants such as Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (CBRL) and McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) benefit from the $1.9 billion extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit for hiring workers from disadvantaged groups.

The bill includes a one-year extension through 2013 of the production tax credit for wind power, at a cost of $12.2 billion. That will save as many as 37,000 jobs in an industry that’s expected to stall this year, the American Wind Energy Association said.

Tax reform over the long-term was supposed to be part of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, but this bill complicates that. The idea behind the reform was that you lower rates for everyone but you pay for that by closing loophole.

Last night, Congress just added $70 billion worth of new loopholes.

www.cbsnews.com...

Oh, but that's not all. Here's some more:

Electric Scooter Riders
People using electric scooters will continue to get a discount on their taxes. Drivers of two- and three-wheel plug-in electric vehicles get a tax break in the legislation. As a way to incentivize alternative energy transportation, Congress voted to continue to give 10 percent of the cost of the electric vehicle - up to $2,500 in tax credits to individuals who purchase plug-in wheels.

Algae and Asparagus Growers
Congress voted to extend $59 million in tax credits for algae growers, who are trying to find a way to produce a biofuel from the plant. And asparagus producers got an extension of their market loss assistance payment, which compensates farmers who for lost revenues because of a spike in foreign asparagus imports.

www.usnews.com...

Oh, this one's my favorite:

- An extension of special access to tax-exempt financing for development near the World Trade Center site in New York. It was intended to assist with reconstruction, but Bloomberg News reported that bond money is paying for luxury apartments as well as a new corporate headquarters for Goldman Sachs.

www.watchsonomacounty.com...

No where have I been able to find a full list of all this bloated pork, but here is the big enchilada that nobody wants to talk about:

The health freedom advocacy group Alliance for Natural Health - USA (ANH-USA) has issued a warning about the developing appropriations bill that Congress is currently working on to solve the fiscal cliff crisis, as it will more than likely contain special provisions for the biotechnology industry to continue thrusting genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into the food supply with little or no resistance. According to ANH-USA, Monsanto and its cronies already know that any proposed fiscal cliff bill will more than likely pass with flying colors because the "crisis" it addresses is urgent, so the industry is heavily lobbying Congress to add special provisions for GMOs that must be stopped.

In an announcement tied to a corresponding Action Alert, ANH-USA explains that Big Biotech will likely try to tack on the so-called Farmer Assurance Provision to the fiscal cliff bill, which would strip federal courts of their authority to halt the sale or planting of GMO crops that have not undergone an appropriate Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) review. If passed, this provision, which has been nicknamed the Monsanto Protection Act, would allow the Secretary of Agriculture to arbitrarily grant temporary approval permits for the planting of illegal GM crops, including those that have been shown to be toxic and deadly.

www.naturalnews.com...

So, what we have is a bill that only kicks the fiscal can down the road for only two months, and has $76 billion in special interest tax credits for the likes of GE and JP Morgan.

As we mad as hell yet?

Really? Whoa what a shocker! I have a hard time believing that a 154 page unread plan had pork in it

This year when you file your taxes don't forget to thank yourselves for your own enslavement.

We can't fight with guns, we will lose. Fight with your wallets people!

reply to post by Mamatus


Of course it had pork in it, or it would have been maybe no more than 50 pages long.

My point in posting this is, people need to stop being distracted by the political theater that we have been fed via the news for the past month or so, and realize that this was just one massive pork fest, using fear as the bait.

Considering that whatever financial disaster they claim they averted is still awaiting us in March, I'm amazed at the amount of reporting and noise this has gotten.

I did write my representative concerning the Monsanto protection in the bill. I got a nice polite, "the FDA and USDA says it's okay, so you don't need to worry about it" form letter, which was not only condescending, but insulting as hell.

Creating tax loopholes for the big boys, while sticking it to others, isn't being a good steward of our tax dollars, it is a joke. Am I surprised? Not at all. Am I disgusted? More than ever.