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ORIGINAL: Pat-rebel_lady

If the whole financial system really is on the verge of collapse, why are senators wasting precious time doing the bidding of special-interest lobbyists seeking tax breaks for racetracks, toys and wool research? Can’t senators help themselves? Is their self-dealing so deeply ingrained that they think nothing of exploiting a national economic emergency to grease the way for special favors that will bring in contributions to their campaign war chests?

What makes this worse is the legislative legerdemain of breathtaking gall. First, the senate is clearly violating both the word and spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution requires all revenue bills to originate in the House. To avoid that requirement, the Senate attached its porked-up bailout package as an amendment to an unrelated spending bill on mental health claims that was previously passed by the House.

Second, the Senate is trying to strong-arm the House by including in the bill a tax-extender measure, which would easily pass on its own because it includes a temporary fix for the “alternative minimum tax” that would otherwise impose a hugh tax increase on middle-class couples. The Senate is telling House members who opposed the bailout that they will be blamed for not fixing the AMT if they oppose the larded=up bailout bill. This is blackmail, pure and simple.

A bill as momentous, and as controversial, as the financial bailout should sink or swim on its own, with legislators accountable for their votes for and against it, unhindered by extraneous considerations. The Senate is trying to give the House --- and American taxpayers --- the proverbial “offer they can’t refuse.”
The House should in response produce a clean version of the bill and shame the Senate into passing it.

I'm so angry I could scream!!!