Wooden Arrows
Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 12:18AM In the heyday of ancient Rome, cooks would prepare outrageous dishes for the extravagant feasts of the wealthy. One example of this excess was stuffing a duck inside a goose, and then that goose inside a sheep, and then the sheep inside a calf, and so on. The tradition lives on in the waning days of the American Empire. Our elected representatives just served us a turkey stuffed inside a pig.
That the $700 billion bailout bill failed in the House the first time out came as a shock to the power brokers of Washington. The voices of the many drowned out the voices of the moneyed few, and for a moment the corporate grip on our government slipped. That grip retightened, though, and the bailout was rewritten in the Senate.
That rewrite was the most cynical I can remember. Oh, I’ve seen straight-ahead bad bills. There were Constitution shredders such as the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. There were oath-breaking abrogations of legislative responsibility such as the bill authorizing the Bush administration to invade Iraq. There have been the usual anti-environmental bills with upside down bizarro-world names like the Clean Skies Initiative and the Healthy Forests Act.
This one was pure unabashed bribery. The most notorious earmark, for its sheer particularity, was the $2 million reduction in excise taxes on “wooden arrows intended for use by children,” benefiting a factory in Oregon. There was a $192 million tax break for makers of rum in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Racetrack owners can now depreciate their facilities over 7 years, saving them $100 million in taxes. The long suffering Hollywood film industry got an extension of a tax break for filming in the U.S. (as if they wouldn’t) worth $478 million over 10 years. And so on.
Even I got some pork, by accident. They put the extension of the 30% tax credits for solar energy installations in the bailout bill as a hostage. The part they didn’t put in was the $2,000 cap on that tax credit. Buy $100,000 worth of solar, get a $30,000 tax credit. My business should boom, but I am not overjoyed. All of this generosity will be financed on credit, paid back by ordinary American taxpayers.
The effectiveness of this earmark bribery is being debated, as compared to the drop in the markets, for example, but it was bribery nonetheless. I would have more respect for the Senate if they had done it this way:
Senate Leader: I know this bill is a giveaway to the Wall Street tycoons and stinks to high heaven, but it comes with a bribe. Here is a suitcase filled with twenties. It is yours in exchange for your vote.
Senator Weasel: Thank you for the bribe. You have bought my vote. I have no self-respect now, but this money will allow me to buy pills so I can sleep at night.
Mark you, I wouldn’t have much respect for them, but the grudging respect due a thief who doesn’t rationalize his crimes.
Here’s a thought: Apply a little library science to legislation. Bills have to go through one or more relevant committees and/or subcommittees before being considered by the House or Senate as a whole. What if there was a law that bills could only have amendments relevant to the categories of committees they pass through? A banking bill can only have banking amendments related to the purpose of the bill, not tax amendments or agricultural amendments Of course, earmarks are the way that legislators bribe their way into the favor of politically significant groups in their home districts, so this would meet with resistance. The solution would be to, in effect, legalize and regulate earmarks. Set aside some percentage of the federal budget specifically for those geographically and economically specific giveaways. Senators and Representatives can fight over this fixed amount out in the open.
But that is just detail. Ultimately, we need to change the way we choose our representatives, cutting the big money out of our campaign system and replacing it with carefully monitored public financing. Until then, the pork will adorn the turkey, Wall Street will feast, and we will pay the bill.
Reader Comments (2)
This system is just plain outrageous. In France, the country I was born in, a bill is a bill and does not include anything else than what it is about. If you want to help agriculture, then propose a bill on agriculture, wooden arrows, then propose a bill on wooden arrows, etc...
But France is not a federal country, so the rules are different... I guess...!
Though I don't see why we could not apply the same rules here. You want more things... pass more and various laws...
My 2 cents!
Hervé
Maybe we should put Bastille Day on our calendars and legalize prostitution in the senate and House.