What it takes to "rescue" the country

Americas great leaders coming together for a great cause? Hardly. What it took, specifically, to pass the bailout the second time around, from the NYT:

WASHINGTON — When the legendary House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill observed that “all politics is local,” he could have been talking about the Rose City Archery company of Myrtle Point, Ore., and its link to the proposed $700 billion financial rescue plan.

Now, Rose City Archery is a venerable company, around since 1932 and by far the world’s biggest manufacturer of a special cedar arrow shaft, turning out a million or so a year, its president and chief executive, Jerry Dishion, said on Thursday. But why, one might ask, does it have anything to do with the bailout?

Because Myrtle Point is in the Fourth Congressional District of Oregon, represented by Peter A. DeFazio, a Democrat who voted on Monday against the rescue plan, that’s why. Mr. DeFazio and many of the others who voted “no” have been the targets of various “sweeteners” attached to the rescue bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday night.

The hope, of course, is that the “improvements” to the Senate bill, which have been tracked by Taxpayers for Common Sense, will convert enough “no” votes to assure passage when the House votes on Friday. These measures, already part of a Senate bill to encourage energy production by alternative sources, were structured to have broad appeal.

Rose City Archery is seeking an exemption from a federal excise tax of 43 cents for a natural-wood, unreinforced arrow shaft suitable for use with bows with peak draw weights under 30 pounds — “kiddie arrows,” as opposed to the sharp-pointed kind used by big-game hunters, Mr. Dishion said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Dishion said removing the excise tax on the blunt-nosed arrows would benefit school districts and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts organizations that buy his company’s arrows.

“We don’t get a penny,” he said, disputing reports that removing the tax would mean a windfall for Rose City Archery. He said that the tax on the “kiddie arrows” had been added several years ago in a mistaken attempt to close a tax loophole. It would still be levied on his company’s “grizzly broadheads” and other fancy hunting arrows.

Other sweeteners in the rescue package would allow plaintiffs in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to average out their punitive-damage awards, easing their tax liabilities; give tax breaks to movie- and television-production companies, and make it easier for employers to provide benefits to employees to offset the costs of bicycle commutes.

The oil spill measure has been backed by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska; the movie-and-television provision by Representative Diane E. Watson, Democrat of California, and the bicycle proposal by Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon. All voted against the rescue plan.

Many other enticements were folded into the Senate bill, and Taxpayers for Common Sense said the cost of all of them could run well into the billions, although any cost estimates floating around Washington these days should perhaps be viewed cautiously.

Mr. Dishion of Rose City Archery displayed business sense as well as altruism in expressing the hope that tax-free arrow shafts would enable more youngsters to experience the joys of archery and perhaps help his company compete with foreign arrow makers.

If the measure passes, Mr. Dishion said, “We’ll break out the Champagne.”