Outrageous -'some shakin' and fixin' boys and gals' as Ms Palin said

The additions on the tax side to the bailout from the Reps are unbelievable - had no time to calculate but that's a few hundred billions additional tax refunds to Wall Street and other corporations. That, in effect, will lower the tax income of the government drastically and cost the regular taxpayer easily another trillion - plus since the budgets for spending remain the same the borrowing of the US government shoots through the roof. Basically, it means that the financial institutions will be given back all taxes they paid in the boom years plus they get the bailout money on top. That's a no-go - but if it goes through its the biggest theft within a century if not ever.

Below the IRS statistics of 2005 - did not find any better data just to give an idea of the dimensions. My calculation is that the hidden losses add up to 5.5 trillion, which part of is outside of USA, but still we are talking 2-3 trillion easily for the Main Street taxpayer as cost.

Preliminary data for tax year 2005 indicate that taxpayers filed 134.5 million U.S. individual income tax returns, an increase of 1.6 percent from the preliminary estimate of 132.4 million returns filed for tax year 2004. Adjusted gross income (AGI) increased by 8.9 percent from the previous year to $7.4 trillion for 2005 and taxable income increased 9.5 percent to $5.1 trillion. The alternative minimum tax rose 31.6 percent to $15.9 billion, while total income tax increased 11.8 percent to $928.3 billion. Other notable changes were: net capital gains, the second largest component of adjusted gross income, rose by 36.7 percent to $604.4 billion; statutory adjustments to total income increased 10.2 percent, from $94.5 billion to $104.2 billion; total deductions increased 8.4 percent to $1,665.6 billion; and total tax credits used to offset income tax liabilities increased 5.7 percent to $54.3 billion. The total earned income credit, including the refundable portion, increased 6.1 percent to $43.1 billion for tax year 2005.

The phone calls they claim to have received were from lobbyists - trying to make up a public support they do not have to pass the bill.

Excerpt from WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122281874953692447.html

A chorus of business leaders and trade groups urged Washington to enact a financial-markets rescue plan, warning that inaction would have dire consequences for the economy and their businesses.

Calls for passage of a measure designed in part to get the nation's financial institutions lending again came from the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as organizations representing retailers, restaurants, wholesaler-distributors and other industries.

The Business Roundtable, a Washington group that represents big-company chief executives, held a conference call of corporate chieftains Tuesday to coordinate stepped-up lobbying efforts, a person familiar with the matter said.

General Electric Co. and Verizon Communications Inc. also have begun lobbying drives. And Microsoft Corp., which has relatively limited borrowing needs, "strongly urges" Congress to reconsider a rescue package "that will re-instill confidence and stability in the financial markets," said the company's top lawyer, Brad Smith.