Senate Bailout Bill: Wooden Arrows, Rum and Pork

In struggling with the liquidity crisis, the United States Senate seems to have found that it goes beyond banks, investment firms, and even generally small business. It seems that, among others, the manufacturers of wooden arrows for children were in peril.

Dutifully, the Senate tucked into its version of the bailout bill a provision repealing a 39 cent excise tax on wooden arrows made for children. This relief for the beleaguered wooden arrows industry was included on behalf of Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, Democrat and Republican respectively, of Oregon to benefit arrow manufacturers in their state.

One supposes that if one makes fiberglass arrows for adults, one is just out of luck.

The Senate bailout bill also contains provisions benefiting Hollywood producers, stockcar race track owners, and rum distillers. These kinds of provisions are delicately known as earmarks. They are commonly known as pork.

The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said that there are two things that should not be looked at too closely, sausage making and law making. The Senate bailout bill, filled out with pork to get Senators to sign on to it, is sausage making at its finest and at its worst.

The liquidity crisis, we are told, has the potential to sink the American economy and cause a second Great Depression. If no one is willing to loan anyone any money, then commerce will grind to a halt. Tens of millions of people will lose their jobs. Chaos will reign.

And, incidentally, Barack Obama will be elected with a far left Congress with a mandate to enact a second New Deal. That is a nightmarish prospect that should be an incentive for any Republican law makers to want to fix the liquidity crisis before it gets really out of control.