Show Me the "Pork"

As everyone knows the so called "Bailout Bill" has been signed into law by President Bush. To get it to pass the US House of Representatives it contained a little "pork" to sweeten the pot and help it to pass.

The signed bill is over 447 pages greater and 100 billion dollars bigger and to think it started as a measly 3-page document and a paltry 700 billion dollars only a week ago. Does this tell us something about the bloating of government. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. It is our money that the Congress spends and promises on our behalf. While we waited for the plan to pass our Congress allowed us to stew a little while they added the pork. We are told it needed the "pork" to pass.

Here are some of the "pork provisions" in the law.

• The bill would raise the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's current insurance limit to $250,000 per account from $100,000.
• The FDIC also would receive temporary unlimited borrowing authority from the Treasury under the bill.
• Some 24 million middle-class taxpayers would get relief from a one-year fix that shields them from higher tax rates under the ATM (Alternative Minimum Tax).
• It extends tax deductions for state and local sales taxes and allows deductions for state and local property taxes and higher education expenses for taxpayers who do not itemize their tax returns.
• The bill includes $18 billion in tax breaks for clean and renewable energy by continuing production tax credits for wind and refined coal, as well as breaks for solar and plug-in electric vehicles.
• The bill includes extension of favorable business tax provisions, such as tax credits related to new markets and research and development as well as the tax treatment of costs for retail and restaurant improvements.
• The bill would require insurance plans that offer mental health benefits to offer them at the same level as medical-surgical benefits.
• The bill provides for exemption for excise taxes on certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
• It allows for a more favorable tax treatment of income from litigation over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
• The bill also gives the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to suspend "mark-to-market" accounting standards to protect investors and the public interest. It also authorizes a study on the advisability of modifications to the practice, which has been blamed for billions of dollars of write-downs by financial services firms, eroding their balance sheets, as they struggle with elusive valuations in an illiquid market.
  

"The government proposal is more accurately described as a 'rescue plan' for the American consumer and taxpayer," said Ric Edleman this week who is listed by Barron's as among America’s 100 top financial advisors.

Visit Ric at http://www.ricedelman.com/.

New York Times article Pressured to Take More Risk, Fannie Reached Tipping Point

The time to be especially wise and dependent, not on ourselves, but on the Lord Himself is now. What does the Word of God have to say about the times in which we find ourselves?

Proverbs 1:20-33

Wisdom's Rebuke

Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: "How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you-when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

"Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Renew your faith and trust in Him who loves and cares for you.