Bailing-Out the Wall-Street Bail-Out Plan...

This is bizzaire and hilarious...

The $700bn Wall Street bail-out proposal was defeated in the US House of Representatives last week. One of the criticisms - among many - of the proposal was that it hardly had anything for the Main Street taxpayer.

To be fair, the new version, which was approved by the US Senate later, has several provisions (e.g., disaster relief breaks, better deductions for costs of higher education, relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, etc.) which will help many ordinary americans...

These new provisions - which also add another $112bn to the bailout plans! - contain some other measures of tax relief, which... err.... well, here are some examples:

$2mn tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children

$100mn tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners

$192mn in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry

$148mn in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers

$49mn tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued Exxon over the 1989 tanker Valdez spill

$322mn tax credit to manufacturers of energy efficient appliances (e.g., dishwashers, clothes washers and refrigerators, etc.)

$500mn tax break for film companies that produce movies in the USA

$10mn tax credit to help employers defray the costs of storing the bicycles of their employees who commute to work!

etc...

As one of the commentator said: "You can't make this stuff up."

Sources:

Bailout dish has heaping side of pork

House bailout legislation larded with - yup, you guessed it - earmarks