The Senate hopes to revive Treasury’s $700 billion financial rescue plan Wednesday night by packaging it together with more than $100 billion in popular tax breaks as well as aid to rural schools important to House Republicans. [emphasis supplied]
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With each permutation, the bill has steadily grown in size. Treasury’s initial plan was about three pages long. The House version, which failed, stretched to 110. The Senate substitute now runs over 450 pages. And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.
Why don’t they just make straight cash offers for a Senator’s vote? It would almost certainly be cheaper.
J. Tyler Ballance
The FY 2007 budget for the agencies who spy on Americans and run all of those infiltration efforts to make sure groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy are not plotting to blow-up Richmond, is $500 BILLION DOLLARS!
Take away the Domestic Spying Agencies toybox, and you could provide most of the bailout for those Wall Street crooks!
Better yet, take the $500 BILLION used to spy on Americans and create a NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE. A NHS would relieve the insurance burden from business and provide a real competitive edge to American manufacturers and related businesses.