Bailout Bonanza!

What started out as a three page plan in the House of Representatives has expanded to a 451 page bill (now H.R. 1424 ) that allocates upwards of $700 Billion U.S. tax dollars to stabilize the economy and includes three major divisions.

A. EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’

• Title I: Troubled Asset Relief Program
• Title II: Budget-Related Provisions
• Title III: Tax Provisions

B. "ENERGY IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION ACT OF 2008"

• Title I: ENERGY PRODUCTION INCENTIVES (A) Renewable Energy Incentives (B) Carbon Mitigation and Coal Provisions
• Title II: TRANSPORTATION AND DOMESTIC FUEL SECURITY PROVISIONS
• Title III: ENERGY CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY PROVISIONS
• Title IV: REVENUE PROVISIONS

C. Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief "Amendment of the 1986 Code"

• TITLE I—ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX RELIEF
• TITLE II—EXTENSION OF INDIVIDUAL TAX PROVISIONS
• TITLE III—EXTENSION OF BUSINESS TAX PROVISIONS
• TITLE IV—EXTENSION OF TAX ADMINISTRATION PROVISIONS
• TITLE V—ADDITIONAL TAX RELIEF AND OTHER TAX
  PROVISIONS (A) General Provisions (B) Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
• TITLE VI—OTHER PROVISIONS
• TITLE VII—DISASTER RELIEF (A) Heartland and Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief (B) National Disaster Relief
• TITLE VIII—SPENDING REDUCTIONS AND APPROPRIATE
  REVENUE RAISERS FOR NEW TAX RELIEF POLICY

This news dwarfs the almost completely forgotten $25 Billion bailout plan specifically for Detroit Automakers and a few qualified international automakers (basically Honda and Nissan) who have plants in the U.S. for longer than 20 years. This plan was funded on September 28, 2008 as part of an "energy bill" and requires a 30 year repayment plan; the details of which have been pushed onto the upcoming presidential administration and is due in 2009.

Aside from the the shocking figures, what concerns me is the bizzare earmarking within these bailouts. Take a look at the "Amendment of the 1986 Code" Title III: Extentions of Business Tax Provisions, for example:

Page 290

1 SEC. 317. SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MOTORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY.
3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (D) of section
4 168(i)(15) (relating to termination) is amended by strik5
ing ‘‘December 31, 2007’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
6 2009’’.
7 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
8 this section shall apply to property placed in service after
9 December 31, 2007.

Page 295

SEC. 325. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF DUTY SUSPENSION ON WOOL PRODUCTS; WOOL RESEARCH FUND; WOOL DUTY REFUNDS.
10 (a) EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY DUTY REDUC
11 TIONS.—Each of the following headings of the Har
12 monized Tariff Schedule of the United States is amended
13 by striking the date in the effective period column and
14 inserting ‘‘12/31/2014’’:
15 (1) Heading 9902.51.11 (relating to fabrics of
16 worsted wool).
17 (2) Heading 9902.51.13 (relating to yarn of
18 combed wool).
19 (3) Heading 9902.51.14 (relating to wool fiber,
20 waste, garnetted stock, combed wool, or wool top).
21 (4) Heading 9902.51.15 (relating to fabrics of
22 combed wool).
23 (5) Heading 9902.51.16 (relating to fabrics of
24 combed wool).

Page 296

1 (b) EXTENSION OF DUTY REFUNDS AND WOOL RESEARCH TRUST FUND
3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 4002(c) of the Wool
4 Suit and Textile Trade Extension Act of 2004 (Pub
5 lic Law 108–429; 118 Stat. 2603) is amended—
6 (A) in paragraph (3)(C), by striking
7 ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’; and
8 (B) in paragraph (6)(A), by striking
9 ‘‘through 2009’’ and inserting ‘‘through 2014’’.
10 (2) SUNSET.—Section 506(f) of the Trade and
11 Development Act of 2000 (Public 106–200; 114
12 Stat. 303 (7 U.S.C. 7101 note)) is amended by
13 striking ‘‘2010’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’.

Page 300

20 SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.
23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)
24 is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301

Page 301

1 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A)
2 the following new subparagraph:
3 ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN
4 ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not
5 apply to any shaft consisting of all natural
6 wood with no laminations or artificial means of
7 enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold
8 separately or incorporated as part of a finished
9 or unfinished product) of a type used in the
10 manufacture of any arrow which after its as
11 sembly—
12 ‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in
13 diameter, and
14 ‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow
15 described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
17 this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date
18 of enactment of this Act.

Click Here for the Full Bailout Bill

Across the globe:

Germany drafted a $653 Billion bailout plan,
France has committed $490 Billion in state funds to aid its financial markets,
Britain created a $435 Billion bailout,
Netherlands proposed a $272 billion bailout,
Spain is injecting $136 Billion into its local debt market,
Austria has $116 Billion bailout,
and Portugal is pledging $27 Billion in guarantees.

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How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship

These are the opening remarks I (Paul L. Caron) delivered at the Symposium on Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship at Harvard Law School on April 28, 2006.

Part One describes how my work on TaxProf Blog and the Law Professor Blog Network led me to organize this Symposium. Part Two takes inspiration from Jim Lindgren's work, Are Scholars Better Teachers?, to ask, using our twenty-three panelists as guinea pigs, Are Scholars Better Bloggers?

The data indicate that our participants include some of the most heavily-cited and heavily-downloaded legal scholars who edit many of the most heavily-trafficked law blogs. Although the data do not do not conclusively answer the question raised, they demonstrate that we have assembled an impressive array of scholar-bloggers in the first conference on the impact of blogs on legal scholarship.

The papers and commentary are organized around four themes:

(1) Law Blogs as Legal Scholarship (papers by Doug Berman, Orin Kerr, Kate Litvak, and Larry Solum; commentary by Jim Lindgren and Ellen Podgor);

(2) The Role of the Law Professor Blogger (papers by Gail Heriot, Gordon Smith, and Eugene Volokh; commentary by Randy Barnett and Michael Froomkin);

(3) Blogs, First Amendment Law, and Co-Blogging Law (papers by Glenn Reynolds and Eric Goldman; commentary by Dan Solove and Betsy Malloy); and

(4) The Many Faces of Law Professor Blogs (papers by Ann Althouse, Christine Hurt & Tung Yin, and Larry Ribstein; commentary by Howard Bashman and Paul Butler).

Paul Butler perhaps best captured the spirit of the Symposium with this clarion call: Blogs are walking up to legal scholarship and slapping it in the face. Blogs say to legal scholarship: 'How dare you! Evolve or Die!' . . . I feel like I am part of a movement that could change the world.

FULL TEXT

Caron, Paul L., Are Scholars Better Bloggers? - Bloggership: How Blogs are Transforming Legal Scholarship. Washington University Law Quarterly, Vol. 84, p. 1025, 2006 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=947637