I'm really not sure what just happened with our now $1 trillion dollar plus "bailout" plan. I don't think any of us know for sure. But it stinks!- Ok, just the facts please,... but where to find them??
On the Library of Congress THOMAS site to search the text of the bill:
Wow, this is confusing,... I'm no lawyer but is this bill about economic bailout or mental health?
What I have figured out is that it's all in what you call a bill; and you can call it anything and people will believe that the name means what it says. That poor bill on capitol hill I feel so sorry for him- he must be so confused constantly getting renamed and asked to carry all kinds of odd things, and porky things, that have seemingly nothing to do with his stated purpose.
Actually the "new" Emergency Economic Rescue Stabilization Act of 2008 has been called several things since it started- the final stage, the Economic Rescue stage, was just a few lines tacked on at the end. Here are the other names, and content, that poor bill is still carrying:
It first started as the --
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008
Heartland Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2008
Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008
Bill To amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Bill To amend section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act
Bill To amend section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008--- Finally, again!
Funny thing is none of the stuff above goes away- it's all in there. Oh well, it all looks like good stuff I guess. Increase a bit of tax relief for some low income earners, make it easier to buy an alternative energy car, providing that group health insurance plans don't limit the amount of mental health treatment you can get, also some disaster relief money, some tax incentive money (how does that work) to encourage clean energy, etc... Good stuff. A sizable chunk of money will go to helping Detroit re-tool for alternative energy cars. All this sounds like a move in the right direction.
And then of course there is the final Biggie cola part that is supposed to give tons of money to Wall Street firms so they will ease up on all of our banking and personal credit needs- because without credit America can't survive (Ok that was sarcasm but it is essentially true- credit is a necessary part of business and it is shrinking up with all these recent bank failures.) Ahh, and we did manage to squeeze in some significant golden parachute restrictions that might actually limit the millions corporate CEOs get for abandoning ship if their firm receives money from this bill. Hope you jumped ship last week boys!
Personally, I say if bands like My Morning Jacket can no longer expect to become millionaires because of the "democratization" (stealing) of music– then why should Wall Street CEOs (rock stars in their own minds) expect to make millions by stealing, and helping others steal money? I vote for My Morning Jacket favorable economics every time! --Go Bill!
