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In all seriousness how does items like that enter a bill such as this one? I don't completely understand the process - but it just seems shocking that somehow

by mrtron 18y ago

In all seriousness how does items like that enter a bill such as this one? I don't completely understand the process - but it just seems shocking that somehow those line items were on there.

ojbyrne 18y ago
I made fun, but someone I work with wants to see the entire excise tax on wooden arrows repealed (he participates in the SCA). From an article on bloomberg: "The arrows provision seeks to reverse an anomaly in a 2004 law that created the 39 cent excise tax on the weapons. Intended the levy more expensive arrows, the tax also applies to arrows used by Boy Scouts and other youth organizations that cost about 30 cents a piece. Ten manufacturers in nine U.S. states stand to benefit from the change, according to a description of the legislation from Wyden's office. " http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKd0vyGN8L2k&refer=us http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKd0...
- whatusername 18y ago
  Thankyou for that! I had been imagining giant arrows made of plywood like you might see in an ad campaign (maybe like this one - http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/1250681839_5317382df8.jpg?v=0 http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/1250681839_5317382df8.jp... ) - and couldn't work it out. It all makes sense now.
- DanielBMarkham 18y ago
  I'm sure the Boy Scouts and their wooden arrows are an important issue, but what in the seven-and-a-half-names-for-God does this have to do with bailing out the mortgage industry? They should just have a reverse Christmas: build a giant Christmas tree and have each of the lawmakers come up and write down what they would like to see under it. Wooden arrows, AMT, raising the FDIC limit (which is actually relevant) Issues like fixing AMT are huge and have broad support. The only differences are whether to raise taxes or not. Guess what? No need to make that choice now, we'll just stick in a few billion to cover the difference for a while and still NOT fix the AMT, thereby managing to look like we've solved something while borrowing still more money than we can easily pay back.
  - llimllib 18y ago
    > they should just have a reverse Christmas: build a giant Christmas tree and have each of the lawmakers come up and write down what they would like to see under it. Welcome to the omnibus spending bill! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_spending_bill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_spending_bill
chaostheory 18y ago
when you want to make something really nasty a lot more palatable to joe sixpack or to a politician looking for earmarks The ugly things being: 1) the financial transactions are still in essence a secret; the public still doesn't have access to what price an asset was bought and sold for. Gee I wonder if the government can keep itself honest? 2) the bailout is still unlimited; the main difference is that now we pay in installments of 100 - 250 billion 3) there is still no mechanism for which the public can get a good ROI on the money we're handing out; according to the bill, it's for the next president to decide 4) there isn't really any reform / bug fixes for the system; it's just a quick and nasty hack for keeping things running in the (flawed) way they were before tanking; which can actually make things a lot worse
- jfoutz 18y ago
  Nobody thinks this will actually fix anything. People (us representatives?) hope it will slow the decent to chaos, or in hacker terms, it's a patch to buy 3 three months time to figure out what the hell to do. As near as i can tell, there are two schools of thought. 1. try to slow the rate of decline. 2. bite the bullet and get the bad times over with quick. If you look at how people actually voted, only senators up for reelection in tight races (based on fivethrityeight.com) and bullet biters voted no. Senators are not stupid. 75 of them think this is the best way to maintain the status quo - their specialty. So, the bill is fucked up. however there's a good chance what they're passing is better than doing nothing - if your goal is to maintain the status quo. That buys time to do something more sophisticated.
  - chaostheory 18y ago
    "That buys time to do something more sophisticated." to me it's more like doing something to help completely kill our democratic republic and replace it with oligarchy... the sad part is based on the voting, it may have already happened
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    I am once again reminded of the relationship between sophisticated and sophomoric and sophistry.

by mrtron 18y ago

In all seriousness how does items like that enter a bill such as this one? I don't completely understand the process - but it just seems shocking that somehow those line items were on there.

ojbyrne 18y ago

I made fun, but someone I work with wants to see the entire excise tax on wooden arrows repealed (he participates in the SCA). From an article on bloomberg: "The arrows provision seeks to reverse an anomaly in a 2004 law that created the 39 cent excise tax on the weapons. Intended the levy more expensive arrows, the tax also applies to arrows used by Boy Scouts and other youth organizations that cost about 30 cents a piece. Ten manufacturers in nine U.S. states stand to benefit from the change, according to a description of the legislation from Wyden's office. " http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKd0vyGN8L2k&refer=us http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKd0...

whatusername 18y ago
Thankyou for that! I had been imagining giant arrows made of plywood like you might see in an ad campaign (maybe like this one - http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/1250681839_5317382df8.jpg?v=0 http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/1250681839_5317382df8.jp... ) - and couldn't work it out. It all makes sense now.
DanielBMarkham 18y ago
I'm sure the Boy Scouts and their wooden arrows are an important issue, but what in the seven-and-a-half-names-for-God does this have to do with bailing out the mortgage industry? They should just have a reverse Christmas: build a giant Christmas tree and have each of the lawmakers come up and write down what they would like to see under it. Wooden arrows, AMT, raising the FDIC limit (which is actually relevant) Issues like fixing AMT are huge and have broad support. The only differences are whether to raise taxes or not. Guess what? No need to make that choice now, we'll just stick in a few billion to cover the difference for a while and still NOT fix the AMT, thereby managing to look like we've solved something while borrowing still more money than we can easily pay back.
- llimllib 18y ago
  > they should just have a reverse Christmas: build a giant Christmas tree and have each of the lawmakers come up and write down what they would like to see under it. Welcome to the omnibus spending bill! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_spending_bill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_spending_bill

chaostheory 18y ago

when you want to make something really nasty a lot more palatable to joe sixpack or to a politician looking for earmarks The ugly things being: 1) the financial transactions are still in essence a secret; the public still doesn't have access to what price an asset was bought and sold for. Gee I wonder if the government can keep itself honest? 2) the bailout is still unlimited; the main difference is that now we pay in installments of 100 - 250 billion 3) there is still no mechanism for which the public can get a good ROI on the money we're handing out; according to the bill, it's for the next president to decide 4) there isn't really any reform / bug fixes for the system; it's just a quick and nasty hack for keeping things running in the (flawed) way they were before tanking; which can actually make things a lot worse

jfoutz 18y ago
Nobody thinks this will actually fix anything. People (us representatives?) hope it will slow the decent to chaos, or in hacker terms, it's a patch to buy 3 three months time to figure out what the hell to do. As near as i can tell, there are two schools of thought. 1. try to slow the rate of decline. 2. bite the bullet and get the bad times over with quick. If you look at how people actually voted, only senators up for reelection in tight races (based on fivethrityeight.com) and bullet biters voted no. Senators are not stupid. 75 of them think this is the best way to maintain the status quo - their specialty. So, the bill is fucked up. however there's a good chance what they're passing is better than doing nothing - if your goal is to maintain the status quo. That buys time to do something more sophisticated.
- chaostheory 18y ago
  "That buys time to do something more sophisticated." to me it's more like doing something to help completely kill our democratic republic and replace it with oligarchy... the sad part is based on the voting, it may have already happened
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  I am once again reminded of the relationship between sophisticated and sophomoric and sophistry.