More Pork!!!

Here are some more "pork" that our tax money is helping "bail" out, oh I'm sorry should I use the term the politicians are using now? "rescue" plan. Stuffed into the 451- page bill are more than $1.7 billion worth of targeted tax breaks to be doled out for a sty full of eyebrow-raising purposes over the next decade. Anyways here are some of them:

* Wool research.

* Auto-racing tracks - $128 million. (bet you NASCAR is smiling).

* Corporations operating in American Samoa - $33 million. (What???).

* Small- to medium-budget film and television productions - $10 million. (HuH???)

* $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

* $3.8 billion health-care provision that forces insurance companies to provide coverage for mental-health treatment equivalent to the coverage they provide for physical illness.

Now can somebody please tell me what all of this has to do with "rescuing" Wall Street? I'll tell you, NOTHING. This is just a transparent attempt at buying the votes of those congressmen/women that voted NO on Monday.

What effect will this bill have if it passes? The Congressional Budget Office said the package of breaks including obvious pork and some more defensible tax-relief measures will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the bill doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue hikes to keep the budget balanced.