The bonanza for Big Business and the corporatocracy got one last boost from the out-going Republican Congress (well, what’d you expect?) in the form of – I don’t know if I can say this without gagging – 520 tax breaks on import tariffs.
A huge tax bill that Congress passed last week contained a little-noticed gift for select corporations — tens of millions of dollars in breaks on import tariffs.Early Saturday morning, in the frantic final hours of the 109th Congress, lawmakers rolled 520 tariff suspensions into the must-pass bill. The provisions will reduce or eliminate taxes on imported products as varied as shoes, camcorders and boiled oysters.
While such suspensions have been around for decades, the flurry of provisions pushed this Congress to a record of nearly 800 for the year. Corporate lobbyists often craft such suspensions to apply to just one product imported by just one company. Many of those companies and their executives have given millions of dollars to political campaigns. (emphasis added)
And the Republican Congress did what for ordinary taxpayers on their way out the door?
Zip.
Well, we didn’t give them scads of $$$ and you know the Pubs – no pay, no play.
Arranology 