Remember Last Year's Christmas Eve Vote That Brought Us Obamacare ?

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The discussions on the bill to keep the current tax rates are getting very interesting.  The orginial deal negotiated with President Obama is dead.  The new deal has everything in it except the kitchen sink, and that's probably there somewhere in the small print.  There is a tremendous amount of anger on both sides of the political spectrum (although for very different reasons).

On Friday, CNS News reported that the Senate won't hold hearings before they vote on the Obama tax bill.  The bill is expected to be brought to the floor next week.

According to the article:

"...the bill also includes provisions that extend special tax breaks for autom racetracks and movie and television producers and that transfer revenues derived from federal excise taxes on rum to the governments of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which use the money for, among other things, subsidizing the local production of rum."

On Friday, CNS News also reported some of the details of the rum subsidy.  According to the article:

"...Section 755 of the bill, which can be found on the 68th page of the 74-page bill.

"The provision extends so-called "cover-over" payments that the federal government has been making to the governments of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Essentially, the program returns nearly all of the excise-tax revenue that the federal government collects on the sale of rum produced in these two U.S. territories.

"Currently, federal law charges an excise tax on all liquor produced and sold in the United States, including rum from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"The special provision in the bill returns to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands $13.25 of the $13.50 per gallon excise tax on the rum produced there. In fiscal year 2008, those payments amounted to $371 million for Puerto Rico and almost $100 million for the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a Congressional Research Service report."

I have said this before.  A simple bill exchanging a continuation of the current tax rates for an extension of unemployment benefits is not wonderful, but acceptable.  A bill that includes every spending idea Congress can think of before the end of the year is not acceptable.  I hope this bill goes down in flames.  The Republicans can clean up the mess when they take over Congress.  If they fail to do so, they can expect to be voted out of office in November 2012.

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This page contains a single entry by Granny G published on December 12, 2010 4:40 PM.

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