‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Also Doles Out Millions for Hollywood, Railroads, Rum Producers
EmailThe “fiscal cliff” compromise has been heralded as a saving grace for middle class taxpayers, their families and the unemployed.
But buried in the fine print of the 150-page deal are also some lesser-known New Year’s gifts to some of Washington’s favorite industries.
Under the plan, the federal government would eat nearly $100 billion in forgone tax revenue over the next two years by extending special tax credits for select businesses that had been set to expire.
While the provisions themselves are not new, and are often extended as part of major bills, their inclusion amidst a tumultuous year-end debate over deficits and debt did raise a few eyebrows.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget listed the so-called “tax extenders” as a “bad” part of the fiscal cliff deal because their cost is not offset, “setting a bad precedent for future extensions.”
The mix of tax perks covering the next year, but with budget implications for the next two years includes everything from incentives for employers to hire veterans to incentives for employers to invest in mine safety. But it also includes these:
- $430 million for Hollywood through “special expensing rules” to encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects.
- $331 million for railroads by allowing short-line and regional operators to claim a tax credit up to 50 percent of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease.
- $222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.
- $70 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities.”
- $59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon.
- $4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes.
*Note the price tags above reflect estimated forgone tax revenue if current credits – which have been due to expire – are extended for one year as included in the Senate bill, per Joint Committee on Taxation.
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Doesn’t matter. All these are on the table for debt-ceiling negotiations. You want additional revenues, Barack Hussein? Hollywood subsidies, railroad subsidies, rum subsidies, algae subsidies, electric motor subsidies, refundable credit subsidies, unemployment subsidies, food stamp subsidies, welfare subsidies, planned parenthood subsidies, obamacare subsidies, medicaid subsidies: gut them all or no debt-ceiling hike for you, Barack Hussein! PUMA!
Posted by: Cuomocrat for Rubio | January 1, 2013, 9:12 pm 9:12 pm
FED UP. This government is 100% totally and irredeemably corrupt. All of them. Every last one.They all need to GO NOW. Time for an American spring.
Posted by: DISGUSTED | January 1, 2013, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm
Lets see…..who can we buy off today at tax payer expense? Thanks liberals. Truly, you low-lives are the scourge of this country. We shouldn’t be rounding up guns, we should be rounding up LIberals!!! Undoubtedly that would reverse most of the problems we have today.
Posted by: Mike | January 1, 2013, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is what they do with your money after they STEAL IT.
Politicians are getting away with this because most of our country is happy falling into 1 of 2 camps: D or R. It’s time for everyone to reevaluate how much we’re expected to do for government since it’s been a LOOOONG time when government was supposed to do anything for us. Checks and balances have been thrown out the window over the past several decades.
how often are our dollars used to *really* help people in need (food/shelter/emergencies) ? is it even one iota as often as tax $$$ is used for weapons, failed programs, and pay increases for Washington ?
Posted by: Rimbaud | January 1, 2013, 9:37 pm 9:37 pm
Government is broken.
Posted by: gman | January 1, 2013, 9:59 pm 9:59 pm
I can’t believe with all the expenses we have to pay off, that Congress is giving anyone of these businesses credits (Hollywood, get rid of the unions and that will keep productions in the US and the taxpayers doesn’t have to pay you guys). First, they say they are going to raise the taxes, then they give credits and dollars and act like they are reducing our bills. Just a shell game. I’m sick of their game playing and doing nothing but padding their own pockets with their buds.
Posted by: Mandy | January 1, 2013, 10:00 pm 10:00 pm
As a rum producer myself, these subsidies to Bacardi are infuriating! This amounts to a $2.14 subsidy per bottle of rum Bacardi sells in the US. Please explain to me how this makes any sense? Every other producer of alcohol in the US must pay this excise tax for the privilege of having this business. So, Bacardi makes billions in profit and pays no tax. This also gives them a $2.14 price advantage in the marketplace. Again, someone explain the logic here? Some fat cat congressman is getting kickbacks and fun weekends in Puerto Rico, I imagine.
Posted by: rumfarmer | January 1, 2013, 10:45 pm 10:45 pm
Lawyers are cowards…Lifetimes of capitalizing on other hardships have made them incapable of saving our country. It will come to violence if you want to stay free.
Posted by: Phuck Yuh | January 1, 2013, 10:46 pm 10:46 pm
U.S. Congress = Looters in a riot.
Posted by: Dasien | January 1, 2013, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
Republican lowlifes passing this kind of legislation. Shame!
Posted by: jeff | January 1, 2013, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
Here we are back in the1770′s… Taxed but not represented. Inflation will bury the Obama voter quicker than most and yet those that tried to save them will get the blame. I pray this marxist house-of -cards somehow falls.
Posted by: Phuck Yuh | January 1, 2013, 10:57 pm 10:57 pm
This just proves one thing. All politicians inherently owe someone money.
Posted by: Only in America | January 1, 2013, 10:59 pm 10:59 pm
Republican lowlifes passing this kind of legislation. Shame!
Posted by: jeff | January 1, 2013, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
No, this is good legislation by the Republicans!
Posted by: Deal | January 1, 2013, 11:01 pm 11:01 pm
According to the constitution, legislation does not originate in the Senate. Boehners’ incompetence is floating plan B so the Senate can screw US Citizens without violating the constitution.
Congress is probably 99% lawyers… stop electing cowards if you want real leaders!!
Posted by: Phuck Yuh | January 1, 2013, 11:12 pm 11:12 pm
Obama is a pig. Congress swine. Jail them all.
Posted by: pat | January 2, 2013, 1:31 am 1:31 am
HAHA, Obama has done it again! He promised liberal hollywood big money and would have raised taxes on every last American if it wasn’t part of the fiscal cliff talks. Good job, smartest man in the room! Now go back to Hawaii for more golf and relaxation. You’ve destroyed enough for one day and deserve a break.
Posted by: Harry Reid | January 2, 2013, 1:49 am 1:49 am
What? No subsidies and paybacks for sculptors for the very expensive materials and supplies they have to buy at retail prices and for the very expensive machinery and equipment they need to produce sculptures?
Posted by: roman5 | January 2, 2013, 1:58 am 1:58 am
So, wher are the cuts in spending?????
Posted by: Tom | January 2, 2013, 3:16 am 3:16 am
$4 trillion, so my grandkids have to work overtime to pay it off big deal.
Posted by: Bob | January 2, 2013, 3:32 am 3:32 am
It figures leftist Obama ABC would forget to mention the bill’s continued support for Climate Hoax, green scams (iIE) windmills, solar nonsense which have and continue to redistribute Billions of Tax dollars into the pockets of Obama’s loyal campaign bundlers
Posted by: pcisbs | January 2, 2013, 4:27 am 4:27 am
Canada has been stealing our Hollywood production. It’s a way to keep it at home. Not everything is evil. It’s not about “liberal Hollywood” and it’s just like any other business.
Posted by: lexingtonlady | January 2, 2013, 6:05 am 6:05 am
it’s all a big shell game, vote on this, don’t vote on that, keep them general public confused so they have no idea what the hell is really going on.everybody gets a little something so we keep voting in this slime. From the President on down to the rep. from the smallest district they are all corrupt slime, and we are all fools for voting them in. I’ve been voting since 1972, I have cast my last vote, it really isn’t worth the effort anymore.
Posted by: hkdakota | January 2, 2013, 6:29 am 6:29 am
Anybody who thinks ANY ONE of those polititians was burning the midnight oil fighting for YOUR FAMILY’S interests is blind. Both sides are a joke and the last thing on any of their minds is Mr. and Mrs. American. This country can’t fail fast enough in my opinion.
Posted by: BKR | January 2, 2013, 6:44 am 6:44 am
I am waiting for the voter remorse to kick in!
Posted by: William Dell | January 2, 2013, 6:50 am 6:50 am
These are not added benefits; they already existed and were not removed from, rather than added to, the bill. Recage the vitriol, folks!
Posted by: Steve Newton | January 2, 2013, 7:07 am 7:07 am
They’ll be no voter remorse, America has become a nation of fools wanting the government to care for them cradle to grave. it’s give me mine and to hell with everyone else, the America I grew up in is gone, may she rest in peace, I miss her.
Posted by: hkdakota | January 2, 2013, 7:18 am 7:18 am
The USA that I fought for and served for 14 years in the military is gone!! MAY GOD BLESS HER SOUL!! I cannot wait for this country to implode fast enough. It’s off to the woods to live in a cave and eat what I hunt. Anyone caught within 1000YDS is a dead man. Let me show you the training our tax dollars paid for. I’ll be safe along with my family!!
Posted by: Angry Joe Citizen | January 2, 2013, 7:31 am 7:31 am
$59 M for ‘a;gae growers’? I guess even the muckrakers who feed the scumsuckers feel they are *entitled* to goverment handouts of ‘tax’ money extorted from productive workers.
Posted by: tadchem | January 2, 2013, 7:46 am 7:46 am
Not a math professor or anything, but adding up the numbers in the article – the headline should have read “Doles out Biillions…”, not “Millions.” But who’s counting anymore anyway… certainly not ABC.
Posted by: JP Smith | January 2, 2013, 7:55 am 7:55 am
The prognotic trance the country is in will be the death of all of us.
Posted by: Kevin Stowell | January 2, 2013, 8:17 am 8:17 am
Hollywood? Why am I not surprised.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 2, 2013, 8:19 am 8:19 am
Hollywood got pay back for electing Obama, with our taxpayer money.
Posted by: sabaniz | January 2, 2013, 9:03 am 9:03 am
Another sad day for America. Vive la France!
Posted by: Gunner--59 | January 2, 2013, 9:07 am 9:07 am
Washington is a cesspool of special interests, and cesspools that are not cleaned out often soon start to fester and smell. But, we voted for it.
Posted by: MassJim | January 2, 2013, 9:15 am 9:15 am
TERM LIMITS
I don’t want my money spent like this!!!!
Posted by: Jane | January 2, 2013, 9:21 am 9:21 am
Best way to get even with statists: encourage and thank Sen. Shelby and Rep. Cantor, help them develop a growing power base to bring down the poser stainin the WH.
Posted by: Krusatyr | January 2, 2013, 9:36 am 9:36 am
Obama pays back his supporters……..with PORK, and more PORK!
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 2, 2013, 9:46 am 9:46 am
Is it 1775 yet?
Posted by: Tilden Park | January 2, 2013, 10:38 am 10:38 am
Well, we certainly want to help Hollywood. I’m sure I will reap much benefit from that. It isn’t like this nation had a debt problem. Is it?
Posted by: Perplexed | January 2, 2013, 10:58 am 10:58 am
So now this terrorist Hussein is stealing money from the mouths of starving children and the elderly to give to his rich Hollywood supporters!
Posted by: Dems hate America | January 2, 2013, 11:15 am 11:15 am
Tax breaks for the wealthy! What a scumbag. I thought we couldn’t afford those things and that it was time to punish those people… Bend forward Amerika! It’s coming in dry! This is government intimacy the left always hoped for!
Posted by: TexBork_2013 | January 2, 2013, 11:27 am 11:27 am
But we don’t have enough money to put a couple of cops in every school? Get retired cops who already have a pension and healthcare. I’m sure that many would like to work 1-2 days each week to earn some supplemental income. I know a bunch of former SEALs, such as myself, who would be glad to help protect our children.
Posted by: trs | January 2, 2013, 11:28 am 11:28 am
Isn’t it wonderful how the democrats and obama don’t engage in ‘crony capitalism’. Now I know why so many citizens voted for him against that crony capitalist, Romney! If Romney had gotten in he would have rewarded those who supported him with government deals.
Posted by: Perplexed | January 2, 2013, 11:38 am 11:38 am
What justification is there, to help Hollywood? NONE!
That is pure payback by Obama for Hollywood support. Hollywood is subversive, against America.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 2, 2013, 11:43 am 11:43 am
The road to Greece is righ over the horizon, so let’s just keep spending money we don’t have! See you when we get to Greece, we’ll be there soon and the Brainwashed can’t line up fast enough!
Posted by: RIP_USA | January 2, 2013, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm
Warren Buffet’s company – Berkshire Hathaway – owns the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe railroad and will benefit from this. Buffet is perhaps the biggest fraud in the country.
Posted by: bc3b | January 2, 2013, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
Own it America.
You voted for this.
Posted by: R Sweeney | January 2, 2013, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM
Posted by: Doc in MPLS | January 2, 2013, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
It’s nice when everyone can come together in the same disdain. It makes it easier to see the drones. Funny how after a year long campaign of “fair share” and “millionaires and billionaires”, these same supporters all of a sudden make excuses when their favorite industries are saved from forking over their “fair share”. OMG you even got one guy who has the audasity to bash Romney in a post!!!! You have to be a Class A moron to somehow blame a guy who LOST THE ELECTION. But that’s libs. party and ideology first, country last. Pathetic and sad.
Posted by: Erin Malcom | January 2, 2013, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
Why do the uneducated believe the rants that come out of DC? Both side line the money with pork, always have always will, yet we do believe it most of the time.
Posted by: FRANCLIFF | January 2, 2013, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
We can’t expect Hollywood to pay their fair share.
Posted by: Vatar | January 2, 2013, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Why would we provide breaks for Buffett after all the trash that comes out of his mouth? Lets see if he comes out and says we rich don’t need these subsidies and gives it back. If not he is full of crap and his words mean nothing just like this greedy president and congress that govern by fear that the uneducated voters continue to buy into with the help of the state run media.
Posted by: Jake | January 2, 2013, 2:01 pm 2:01 pm
From what I am reading, no one is happy abou these. Corporate farms, wind farms, subsidies galore. Can we FINALLY agree that it’s time to throw them all out and send them a message from the little guy? They don’t care about you because the reason these subsidies are in there is because they greased the palm of YOUR elected official and got a “rider” slid into some other bill. Probably had to do with something noble but they allowed it to slide in there. VOTE THEM OUT. All of them. Don’t forget this come next election.
Posted by: Steve | January 2, 2013, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
SPARE NO ONE. VOTE THEM ALL OUT. As DISGUSTED put it, time for an American Spring. VOTE THEM OUT.
Posted by: Steve | January 2, 2013, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
Business as usual, your tea party liars are also part of the problem,
Posted by: Jack | January 2, 2013, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
Republicans voted for this.
Posted by: Deal | January 2, 2013, 4:15 pm 4:15 pm
Don’t blame me, I voted for Ron Paul
Posted by: sparnicus | January 2, 2013, 4:19 pm 4:19 pm
It is a waste of time warning people about Greece. They do not want to see it happening because they have a vested interest in receiving goodies from Washington. As long as these receipients of goodies also can vote for the folks who go to Washington to dispense the goodies they will remain compromised.
Posted by: Perplexed | January 2, 2013, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
By Steve: “Can we FINALLY agree that it’s time to throw them all out and send them a message from the little guy?”—->Yeah, I really AGREE with you. BUT, the problem is, I would like to see Pelosi and Reid, AT THE VERY LEAST, booted out of office, but I can’t vote in those precincts. Likewise, there’s probably a large number of libs who’d like to vote Lindsey Graham out of office, but he’s my senator and I think he’s done fair enough (not stellar, w/some disappointments), but nothing to rate him up there with Pelosi and Reid, IMO. That’s the stickler. We can’t vote out each other’s BOZOS and DUDS.
Posted by: wildandblue | January 2, 2013, 4:26 pm 4:26 pm
The evolution of America from a grand republic to a tyrannical body of bafoons continues. We’re no longer a gov’t for the people, by the people. It’s a gov’t that tells the people what they’re going to get, how they’re going to get it, and who’s going to get what. They were supposed to work for US. I’m P-O-d at myself for forgetting that this “deal” would contain bloat and paybacks. Vote the bums out, from both parties. They have to get the message some how.
Posted by: wildandblue | January 2, 2013, 4:31 pm 4:31 pm
NUKE HOLLYWOOD
Posted by: Spurwing Plover | January 2, 2013, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
Obama said taxes would only go up for the top 2% of tax payers, that was just another one of Obama’s lies! Fact is, over 77% of Americans will see their taxes increase on their very next pay check and that does not include all those Obamacare taxes that are kicking in very soon! The middle class is gonna be showered with new Obama taxes and trillions of dollars of new Obama debt! Oh its okay, the middle class did vote for Obama again, so they won’t mind paying a few thousand more for all Obama’s new taxes, will they!
Posted by: The Inconvenient Truth | January 2, 2013, 5:11 pm 5:11 pm
“The “fiscal cliff” compromise has been heralded as a saving grace for middle class taxpayers, their families and the unemployed.”
Really? only a true moron would herald it as that..
Posted by: Leonard | January 2, 2013, 5:32 pm 5:32 pm
Do you think France will help us revolt against our gov now.
Posted by: TC | January 2, 2013, 6:24 pm 6:24 pm
OK, show of hands. How many Americans actually believe that Obama is a member of Congress? Some of these comments are priceless-unlike NASCAR. Does anybody out there really believe that Obama is a NASCAR guy?
Posted by: Kirk Bruner | January 2, 2013, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
What a bunch of scumbags!!!
What the hell are earmarks to Hollywood and NASCAR doing in the Fiscal Cliff bill?
Obama should refuse to sign the damn thing, but of course he won’t refuse to repay his Hollywood worshipers.
Posted by: Charlie Barrett | January 2, 2013, 9:02 pm 9:02 pm
NASCAR was the Democrats gift to the Republicans and Hollyweird was the Republicans gift to the Democrats. See, government does work. One hand washes the other.
Posted by: ScroogeYou | January 2, 2013, 11:54 pm 11:54 pm