Congress never ceases to amaze me. Following the unexpected defeat of the measure on Monday, the Senate decided to take a crack at writing something that could pass. The Senate’s technique was nothing short of brilliant. Rather than debating the need for the measure and perhaps rewriting provisions to make it more palatable, they did what any good politician would do: they added bribes to sweeten the deal for those Representatives who voted against it.
Because the House is responsible for introducing legislation that deals with budgetary matters, the Senate didn’t introduce this as new legislation. Instead, the Senate greatly amended existing legislation, H.R.1424, which apparently has been bouncing around between the House and the Senate for 18 months. The Senate bill now contains the original enacting clause:
To amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment, and for other purposes.
And then:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following:
And there follows the 110 pages of the House’s Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and 350 more pages of additional legislation. The bill, now 451 pages long, contains three divisions:
Division A: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
This is pretty much the same legislation that failed to pass in the House on Monday. A notable addition is Section 136, which temporarily raises the FDIC and National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund deposit insurance limits from $100,000 per account to $250,000 per account. The idea behind this move is to reassure businesses and prevent them from moving their deposits from small banks to larger banks that are viewed as more secure.
Division B: Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008
Provides tax incentives and credits for renewable energy, investments in cleaner coal technology and biofuels, plug-in electric cars, energy conservation, and many other things. It’s a scattershot energy bill that’s been working its way through the legislature as H.R.6049 since May of this year.
DIvision C: Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008
This part began life in June 2008 as H.R.6275, to provide relief from the alternative minimum tax for middle- and low-income taxpayers. The original version was a few dozen pages long. The new version is almost 200 pages in length and includes all manner of personal and business tax cuts, credits, and deductions. And then there are the miscellaneous provisions, among them:
- The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 states that health insurance companies have to provide the same level of coverage for mental health benefits as they do for medical and surgical benefits.
- A reauthorization of the Secure Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000,
- Disaster relief legislation.
If you read the Table of Contents for each of the divisions, it becomes very clear that the Senate in its infinite wisdom targeted certain provisions to individual parties and even individual states in an attempt to win over those who voted against the original bailout plan. In doing so, they had to be careful not to add something that would cause members who originally voted for the plan to vote against it. Honestly, though, I don’t think there was much chance of somebody changing his vote from “aye” to “nay.”
Estimates place the cost of new provisions at about $105 billion, a very large part of which would fit under the category of “pork barrel projects.” Both McCain and Obama voted for the measure, despite recent public statements about the evils of pork barrel spending.
It’s now five minutes to noon in Washington. Party whips have been making the rounds in the House, trying to get members’ commitments to support the bill. The House is set to convene at noon, and will be voting on this bill. I’d like to think that those who voted against it on Monday will stand their ground, but I fear that politics will once again trump good sense.