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Tax bill has lots of breaks for special interests
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/15/10 | Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Posted on 12/15/2010 7:56:28 AM PST by SmithL

Washington - -- The tax compromise expected to pass the Senate today and add $858 billion to the national debt is packed with much more than another year of unemployment benefits and a two-year extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts.

It also contains a special-interest bonanza of spending programs disguised as tax breaks, or "tax earmarks," that range from energy and education tax credits to tax-exempt bonds for areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

California's Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer joined an overwhelming 83-15 vote Monday to move forward on the tax bill, the biggest bipartisan victory of the Obama administration so far. A Senate vote on final passage is expected today.

Ethanol subsidies are among the biggest earmarks. Feinstein waged a last-ditch effort Tuesday to reduce them, even as she sought to add tax breaks for wind and solar developers. She and Boxer and a dozen other Senate Democrats and 81 House members demanded the alternative-energy tax breaks in exchange for their votes for the tax bill.

An amendment by Feinstein to cut ethanol subsidies and extend a tax credit for alternative-energy manufacturers, which was part of the 2009 stimulus, failed. The $2.3 billion program has made nine awards to California companies, including Stion and Nanosolar in San Jose.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: earmarks; porkbarrell; txandspend; yourtaxdollarsatwork
Business as usual, I guess.
1 posted on 12/15/2010 7:56:33 AM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

yep. the elections are over for two years. time to get back to ‘work’. have to pick up the pace because the money may be running out


2 posted on 12/15/2010 8:09:33 AM PST by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: SmithL

Anyone got a link to the dang bill?


3 posted on 12/15/2010 8:11:12 AM PST by mewzilla (Hey, Schumer, how's that Lockerbie bomber deal investigation coming along?)
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To: mewzilla

I believe it is another “framework” with the details to be spelled out after the vote. That seems to be the favorite tactic for hiding the truth lately.


4 posted on 12/15/2010 8:26:23 AM PST by Ingtar (If Washington and his peers had been RINOs, we would still be a British colony.)
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To: mewzilla

I heard it was around 1900 pages.....probably an estimate, and probably NOT EVEN WRiTTEN YET!


5 posted on 12/15/2010 9:29:19 AM PST by goodnesswins (You deciding how to spend your health care $, thatÂ’s freedom. Govt deciding, thats a death panel)
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To: SmithL

CRIMINALS AT WORK DESTROYING THE FINEST COUNTRY GOD PUT ON EARTH!

I am angered beyond civil discourse at Dingy Harry Reid and the “US” Senators who support & vote for this garbage.

I’m not gonna get mad! I’m gonna get even!

Is it 2012 yet?


6 posted on 12/15/2010 11:47:30 AM PST by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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