A quiet windfall for U.S. banks

[dbackjon]

With attention on bailout debate, Treasury made change to tax law

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 55_pf.html

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.

"Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no," said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. "They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks."

[lifesapuntreturn]

This entire situation is completely out of control, which is exactly what the people in Washington DC want. Throw so much information, so much turmoil, so much rhetoric at the people and they will not be able to understand it nor will they be willing to even try to understand it. The old saying 'If you can't dazzle them with brilliance then baffle them with bs" comes to mind here. The saying 'ignorance is bliss' also comes to mind.

It's working and will continue to work the way these thieves want it to. We've lost our country and I seriously doubt we'll be able to get it back at this point. I doubt anybody will ever fully uncover and report this whole story. There are so many players, so many layers and so many lies that it will be impossible to uncover it all.

Most of all, there are so few people paying attention that even if it is uncovered, most people won't care. But they'll know the names and backgrounds of every participant on 'American Idol' and 'Dancing With the Stars'.

[AZGrizFan]

And now we're gonna give the government MORE of our money to piss away...

WAFJ this country has become. It's a characature of it's former self.