"We will not Christmas-tree this bill. The times are too urgent. Everyone has their own desires and needs. It's going to have to wait." -- Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, earlier this week on the urgency of passing the $700 billion bailout bill.
Christmas-treeing a bill is political-speak for attaching the usual billion dollars or two in pork projects, or earmarks.
Of course, things didn't work out that way with the bailout bill. It was business as usual with millions added at the last minute for pet projects. There were tax breaks for makers of wooden arrows, for Rum producers in Puerto Rico ...
And my personal favorite, because it's just so typical: Tax breaks for corporations in American Somoa.
OK, kids, pop quiz.
Guess which company operates the largest tuna canning plant in the world in American Somoa, employing amost 75 percent of that territory's workforce?
If you said Starkist, you get a cookie.
Now, onto the bonus round.
Guess where Starkist's parent company, Del Monte, is headquartered?
If you said in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district, you get another cookie.
Let's review the Liberal playbook, shall we? American companies that operate overseas, costing Americans jobs, are bad, bad, bad! Tax cuts for the rich? (I think we can all agree that Del Monte ain't exactly hurtin'.) Bad, EVIL, bad!
Shouldn't come as a surprise, though. After all, within a week of the Democrats taking control of the House and Pelosi ascending to her throne, Congress raised the minimum wage across America and in all U.S. territories.
With one exception. Care to venture a guess?
If you said American Somoa, you get yet another cookie.
(Imported from Oct. 3, 2008)
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