Monday, May 10, 2004
Tax breaks going to the poor?...no...the middle class?...NO... *sigh* corporations? BINGO
Can this be more in your face?
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It started as an effort to eliminate a $5 billion tax break for exporters that irked the European Union ( news -web sites ). Since then, a tax bill has blossomed into a $170 billion cornucopia of breaks for a variety of groups ranging from farmers and railroads to the cruise ship industry, former Oldsmobile dealers, NASCAR ( news -web sites ) and makers of bows and arrows.
Typically, critics say, it is during the dark of night that lawmakers slip such benefits into bills like the one now before the Senate. This time, however, many of the tax breaks were added in full light of day.
The Senate Finance Committee chairman publicly disclosed most of them and folded them into the corporate tax bill, which Republicans are calling the Jumpstart Our Business Strength (JOBS) bill. Then Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked colleagues to support it.
"Keep in mind," Grassley said, "that the JOBS bill could be the last train out of town this year."
Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said it was an "in-your-face, `Here's your special parochial pork barrel tax provision, now I want your vote,' approach."
Can this be more in your face?
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