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Chris
01-05-2013, 10:34 AM
More on the bipartisan corruption of our government.


There have been a few very good opinion pieces about the large amount of special-interest goodies in the fiscal-cliff bill. This morning the Wall Street Journal, for instance, had a piece in its Review and Outlook section titled “Crony Capitalist Blowout,” which gave a good summary of all the crony tax credits in the already infamous deal:


In praising Congress’s huge new tax increase, President Obama said Tuesday that “millionaires and billionaires” will finally “pay their fair share.” That is, unless you are a Nascar track owner, a wind-energy company or the owners of StarKist Tuna, among many others who managed to get their taxes reduced in Congress’s New Year celebration.

There’s plenty to lament about the capital and income tax hikes, but the bill’s seedier underside is the $40 billion or so in tax payoffs to every crony capitalist and special pleader with a lobbyist worth his million-dollar salary. Congress and the White House want everyone to ignore this corporate-welfare blowout, so allow us to shine a light on the merriment.

Here is a list of some of the tax credits:

$78 million to retain an accelerated tax write-off for owners of NASCAR tracks
$62 million tax credit for companies operating in American Samoa
$222 million tax rebate for rum distillers
$222 million in accelerated depreciation for businesses located on Indian reservations
$430 million over two years in tax breaks for film and television producers who incur production costs incurred in the United States, with a special bonus if the costs are incurred in economically depressed areas in the United States
$59 million in tax credits for cellulosic biofuels
$2.2 billion in tax credits for biodiesel and “renewable diesel”
$7 million in consumer tax credits for buying plug-in motorcycles
$154 million for the manufacturers of energy-efficient appliances
$650 million in tax credits for builders of energy-efficient homes
$12 billion in wind-energy-production tax credits


@ Cronyism Lives On (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336865/cronyism-lives-veronique-de-rugy).

Link to Crony Capitalist Blowout (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323320404578216583921471560.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop).

Link to another piece referenced later: How corporate tax credits got in the 'cliff' deal (http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-how-corporate-tax-credits-got-in-the-cliff-deal/article/2517397#.UOhH0m-7N8H)

Uncle Slam
01-05-2013, 11:57 AM
More on the bipartisan corruption of our government.



@ Cronyism Lives On (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336865/cronyism-lives-veronique-de-rugy).

Link to Crony Capitalist Blowout (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323320404578216583921471560.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop).

Link to another piece referenced later: How corporate tax credits got in the 'cliff' deal (http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-how-corporate-tax-credits-got-in-the-cliff-deal/article/2517397#.UOhH0m-7N8H)

The continuing selling-out of America, one corporate donor at a time!

zelmo1234
01-05-2013, 12:29 PM
The continuing selling-out of America, one corporate donor at a time!

I see one of those cuts that could be a republican idea and that is the Nascar credit which actually lets them take the credit earlier, it is not a cut, just moves up the deduction. This is actually the same Tax Credit that the oil industry gets.

The rest of them have the Democrats finger prints all over them.

Chris
01-05-2013, 01:11 PM
My guess is these aren't so much tied to party as to bringing home pork and/or favors for campaign contributions.

It does represent a kind of corruption of socialism, albeit conservative socialism in that it seeks to conserve through regulation the status quo if not redistribute wealth by benefiting certain companies over others--corporate welfare.

(Taxing the rich is another kind of corruption of socialism, democratic socialism to redistribute wealth, more commonly called social welfare.)

Uncle Slam
01-05-2013, 03:15 PM
Government by bribery, as Jesse Ventura says...........

Chris
01-05-2013, 05:42 PM
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
~Alexis de Tocqueville

Chris
01-06-2013, 10:11 AM
You gotta love libs, only they could invent such a lame excuse.

Liberal Explanation for Dem Pork: The Lobbyists Made Us Do It (http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2013/01/04/liberal-explanation-for-dem-pork-the-lobbyists-made-us-do-it/)


...Surely, the New York Times, the crusader against the evils of Big Business, Big Oil, and Big Everything Else, will use this golden opportunity to express outrage at Congress’s corporate-welfare giveaway at a time most Americans are seeing their taxes increase. Surely, the Times will expose the Democrat and Republican Congress members responsible for this outrage.

No. The Times concludes that corporate American is to blame for this “perennial Washington ritual….with lobbyists and companies and their allies on Capitol Hill securing their survival in the fine print of the tax code.” The poor put-upon members of Congress are hog tied and led to the trough by corporate lobbyists, who will not take no for an answer. Members of Congress go to bed fearful of waking with a severed horse’s head next to them.

Per The Times, the corporate porkers are themselves to blame: “Washington’s inability to close many of these loopholes is a sign of just how reluctant business is to sacrifice prized subsidies…” So, we have it: We have corporate pork because corporate lobbyists refuse to stop asking for it! Yes, the devil made us do it.

Deadwood
01-06-2013, 11:36 AM
Two points.....

One why does the film and tv industry need a write off for production costs?

And while they are throwing some pennies at alternate energy forms, they are subsidizing the oil industry to keep prices low and use more carbon [if Obama doesn't believe in global warming why should anyone else?] while also subsidizing NASCAR tracks where, in one afternoon, a few hundred thousand dinosaurs get turned into vapor.

Makes about as much sense as that "spontaneous demonstration" September 11th in Benghazi

Mainecoons
01-06-2013, 11:40 AM
Unless one is taxing gross receipts, why would one not expect to be able to deduct the cost of production from income to determine taxable profit?