Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Weird pork provisions in Senate bailout bill

Want to know what oddities qualify for crisis legislation?

Read all about it.

Actual 451-page text of the bill.

Note: Paulson proposal was about 2 pages. House bill was 100 pages. Senate bill 451 pages, weighing almost 5 pounds.

If this is such an emergency, hold the pork. If there's room for pork in the bill, it isn't an emergency.

Example from the text of the bill from pages 300-301:

SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN
21 WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY
22 CHILDREN.
23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)
24 is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301

1 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A)
2 the following new subparagraph:
3 ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN
4 ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not
5 apply to any shaft consisting of all natural
6 wood with no laminations or artificial means of
7 enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold
8 separately or incorporated as part of a finished
9 or unfinished product) of a type used in the
10 manufacture of any arrow which after its as11
sembly—
12 ‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in
13 diameter, and
14 ‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow
15 described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
17 this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date
18 of enactment of this Act.

1 comment:

Timothy W Higgins said...

One can never cease to wonder at the minds of those we put in Congress. While on the very brink of increasing the debt ceiling of this country by 300%, they can calmly take the time to add a little bit of skulduggery, nonsense, and fertilizer to what is supposed to be "emergency legislation".

This bit of legislation might well have been written by Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for those uninitiated).

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