Bizarre Pork Along For the Ride

The "new and improved" (LOL) bailout (errr.... rescue) plan that was finally agreed to by Congress and the President naturally includes plenty of "pork" spending. A lot of this comes by means of bizarre, very specific tax exemptions. This USA article describes this, but I got a groan-laugh from the sidebar content that lists "some tax breaks in the current bill":

• Bicycle commuters. Provides employees who commute by bicycle limited benefits to offset commuting costs. Estimated cost: $10 million over 10 years.
• Children's wooden practice arrows. Exempts wooden practice arrows from excise tax, currently 39 cents. Estimated cost: $2 million over 10 years.
• Film and television productions. Allows more film and television show production companies to use the domestic production deduction. Estimated cost: $397 million over 10 years.
• Commercial fishermen. Allows commercial fishermen and others affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill to average any settlement or judgment-related income over three years. Estimated cost: $49 million over 10 years.
• Motorsports complexes. Extends seven-year cost-recovery period to the end of 2009 for land improvement and support facilities placed in service after Dec. 31, 2007. Estimated cost: $100 million over 10 years.

Sigh... Think about the waste in our system of government, such as the time and money spent by lobbiests on these issues, some perhaps over many years. And then think about how none of these things have anything to do with the bailout plan being voted on -- other than the specific congresspeople who wanted these earmark items, do the others even know they were tacked on for the ride? Probably not. How pathetic. Something like the Read the Bills Act might help with this craziness. But of course, to really fix things much more dramatic changes in our government would be needed: greatly limiting the federal government, indeed all government, to its proper functions -- protecting our individual rights. That would do away with all "pork" spending, lobbying for money, etc. Obviously... I'm not holding my breath for such a principled change in the US anytime soon.