Tax Cut Bill Signed By Obama Packed With Obscure Stocking Stuffers For Businesses

[Joanne98]

WASHINGTON - The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

This is 'not a victory for me. It's a victory for the American people,' President Obama said of the tax deal. A closer look, however, reveals who absorbed most of the victory spoils.
There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses.

Millions of homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local property taxes.

The business tax breaks are part of sweeping legislation that extends Bush era tax cuts for families at every income level through 2012. Obama signed the $858 billion measure a week ago. It also provides a new payroll tax cut for wage earners and extends jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed.

Most of the business tax breaks - about 50 in all - are part of a package that expires each year, creating uncertainty for tax planners but lots of business for lobbyists. Many of these tax breaks have been around for years but expired at the end of 2009 because lawmakers couldn't agree how to pay for them.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/25-1

[frazzled]

1. grants for putting up windmills is good stimulus

A continuation of business investments, and ones that promote alternative energies. These were part of the first stimulus package we praised. But if you're looking to turn roses into poop, it's possible. All you have to do is say "business" on common dreams, and they will smell the ...

I'm too lazy this morning to continue.

[bvar22]

2. There you go...

begrudging them their wealth.
"They are just savvy businessmen."
"Look at all the Baseball Players."
"Its the Free Market."



"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone