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Oct. 1st, 2008 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickIt's said that people who respect the law and enjoy sausage should never watch either one being made.
Students of the government (which I am not) are aware that spending bills are SUPPOSED to originate in the House of Representatives. The "House Appropriation Bill" is frequently mentioned in this light. Stuff that spends money is supposed to come out of the House first and then travel to the Senate for review and stuff, but whatever. (See here for a discussion of who should be originating spending bills.) That said, I expect that Congress will conveniently ignore precedent and tradition in the face of an Economic Emergency the Likes of Which Has Never Yet Been Seen!!! The Senate apparently has votes on board to pass this thing where the House of Representatives demonstrably didn't as of Monday when they voted. I guess passing the bill in the Senate (they're the cool kids, after all) will make the House of Representatives fall in line. Or something.
Anyway, on this bailout thing. Secretary Paulson submitted a three page bailout bill proposal or plan or something to Congress last week sometime. By the time the House of Representatives got done with it, it was about a hundred pages long. When they voted on Monday, the House of Representatives said "Uhm, no thanks" to the bailout bill in its hundred page glory. Their Nay was followed by a huge dive in the stock market. After voting No, the House of Representatives adjourned for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish holiday. Has nothing to do with marijuana.) and there's been no substantive action on that front since. In the meantime, action on this Vitally ImportantBailout Economic Rescue Package has moved to the Senate.
In the Senate, the Bailout swelled from about a hundred pages to four hundred and fifty one pages as our dear Senators tried to make the bill more palatable for members of the House who hadn't passed it the first time. Sorry, senators. A shit sandwich is still a shit sandwich even if you add a layer of BLT and mayo to the thing, hold it all together with those cute cellophane toothpicks, lay a couple of sprigs of parsley alongside, and call it a Club Shit Sandwich. I'm still not going to eat it.
Want to read the bill? It's fascinating, really.
Here are some things that are included in the new, improved bailout bill:
* Broker reporting of customer’s basis in securities transactions.
* Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters.
* Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
* Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Would you have expected dishwashers to be covered in this vitally important and super-critical and totally urgent Economic Rescue Bill? There are dishwashers in the bailout bill. Srsly. Dishwashers.
See P. 218 of the linked pdf file.
21 ‘‘(1) DISHWASHERS.—The applicable amount
22 is—
23 ‘‘(A) $45 in the case of a dishwasher which
24 is manufactured in calendar year 2008 or 2009
(continued on p. 219)
1 and which uses no more than 324 kilowatt
2 hours per year and 5.8 gallons per cycle, and
3 ‘‘(B) $75 in the case of a dishwasher
4 which is manufactured in calendar year 2008,
5 2009, or 2010 and which uses no more than
6 307 kilowatt hours per year and 5.0 gallons per
7 cycle (5.5 gallons per cycle for dishwashers de-
8 signed for greater than 12 place settings).
Dishwashers? Yeah, it's in there. Wow! They thought of *everything*...
Fortunately for us, for makers of wooden arrows designed for children, for makers of rum, and for those who own energy--efficient dishwashers, the Economic Rescue Bailout passed the Senate 75 to 24. (Senator Kennedy has brain cancer and, with a note from his doctor, was excused from voting.) Senators Casey and Specter (the Pennsylvania senators) both voted Yea. I sure feel safer now.
The most recent stuff I've seen on What Happens Next is lots of not-very-visible action over at the House of Representatives, where party leaders like John Boehner (R) and Nancy Pelosi (D) will be out twisting arms and saying things like "You'll never work in this town again if you don't support the Very Important Bailout Bill!" to the holdouts over the next day and a half. That not-very-visible activity will be followed by a happy and amusing and very public vote on the Fatted Bill on Friday. Thing is, the House isn't allowed to make changes to the Bill or the works get gummed up again while someone (a Committee, maybe?) tries to iron out the differences between the House version and the Senate version so that everybody can vote on the same thing. (Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock!)
Students of the government (which I am not) are aware that spending bills are SUPPOSED to originate in the House of Representatives. The "House Appropriation Bill" is frequently mentioned in this light. Stuff that spends money is supposed to come out of the House first and then travel to the Senate for review and stuff, but whatever. (See here for a discussion of who should be originating spending bills.) That said, I expect that Congress will conveniently ignore precedent and tradition in the face of an Economic Emergency the Likes of Which Has Never Yet Been Seen!!! The Senate apparently has votes on board to pass this thing where the House of Representatives demonstrably didn't as of Monday when they voted. I guess passing the bill in the Senate (they're the cool kids, after all) will make the House of Representatives fall in line. Or something.
Anyway, on this bailout thing. Secretary Paulson submitted a three page bailout bill proposal or plan or something to Congress last week sometime. By the time the House of Representatives got done with it, it was about a hundred pages long. When they voted on Monday, the House of Representatives said "Uhm, no thanks" to the bailout bill in its hundred page glory. Their Nay was followed by a huge dive in the stock market. After voting No, the House of Representatives adjourned for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish holiday. Has nothing to do with marijuana.) and there's been no substantive action on that front since. In the meantime, action on this Vitally Important
In the Senate, the Bailout swelled from about a hundred pages to four hundred and fifty one pages as our dear Senators tried to make the bill more palatable for members of the House who hadn't passed it the first time. Sorry, senators. A shit sandwich is still a shit sandwich even if you add a layer of BLT and mayo to the thing, hold it all together with those cute cellophane toothpicks, lay a couple of sprigs of parsley alongside, and call it a Club Shit Sandwich. I'm still not going to eat it.
Want to read the bill? It's fascinating, really.
Here are some things that are included in the new, improved bailout bill:
* Broker reporting of customer’s basis in securities transactions.
* Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters.
* Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
* Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Would you have expected dishwashers to be covered in this vitally important and super-critical and totally urgent Economic Rescue Bill? There are dishwashers in the bailout bill. Srsly. Dishwashers.
See P. 218 of the linked pdf file.
21 ‘‘(1) DISHWASHERS.—The applicable amount
22 is—
23 ‘‘(A) $45 in the case of a dishwasher which
24 is manufactured in calendar year 2008 or 2009
(continued on p. 219)
1 and which uses no more than 324 kilowatt
2 hours per year and 5.8 gallons per cycle, and
3 ‘‘(B) $75 in the case of a dishwasher
4 which is manufactured in calendar year 2008,
5 2009, or 2010 and which uses no more than
6 307 kilowatt hours per year and 5.0 gallons per
7 cycle (5.5 gallons per cycle for dishwashers de-
8 signed for greater than 12 place settings).
Dishwashers? Yeah, it's in there. Wow! They thought of *everything*...
Fortunately for us, for makers of wooden arrows designed for children, for makers of rum, and for those who own energy--efficient dishwashers, the Economic Rescue Bailout passed the Senate 75 to 24. (Senator Kennedy has brain cancer and, with a note from his doctor, was excused from voting.) Senators Casey and Specter (the Pennsylvania senators) both voted Yea. I sure feel safer now.
The most recent stuff I've seen on What Happens Next is lots of not-very-visible action over at the House of Representatives, where party leaders like John Boehner (R) and Nancy Pelosi (D) will be out twisting arms and saying things like "You'll never work in this town again if you don't support the Very Important Bailout Bill!" to the holdouts over the next day and a half. That not-very-visible activity will be followed by a happy and amusing and very public vote on the Fatted Bill on Friday. Thing is, the House isn't allowed to make changes to the Bill or the works get gummed up again while someone (a Committee, maybe?) tries to iron out the differences between the House version and the Senate version so that everybody can vote on the same thing. (Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock!)
