Straining at the gnat

Evidently one of the big whining points (I would say "talking points", but let's be honest here) from the Right about the bailout, other than the fact that THE GUMMINT is going to have new powers (see, there's a danger a Democrat could get elected, so they're going all "limited government checks-and-balances the President isn't a king" once again), is the tax breaks that have been added to the legislation - one of the primary ones being for an Oregon company that makes wooden arrows.

Talk about straining at the gnat and swallowing the camel.

From the London Times:

It is an extraordinary sub-plot in the scramble to save the US financial sector from collapse. Inserted into the modified Bill by two Oregon senators on Wednesday night was a provision repealing a 39-cent excise tax on children’s wooden arrows, which would save Rose City Archery, a company in Myrtle Point, Oregon, that makes the toys. Three House members from the state voted against the Bill on Monday, but the new clause could change their minds.

Also in the revised Bill is $128 million of tax relief for the manufacturers of car racing tracks, aimed at congressmen in Nascar states, such as Virginia and North Carolina. A provision to give $10 million in tax breaks to small television and film producers could convert a congressman from Los Angeles.

So, far from being pointless pork, you could look at this as a move to save American jobs. After all, didn't Caribou Barbie do a whole lot of yapping about jobs Thursday night? Gotta save jobs, y'know. And NASCAR! What true red-blooded patriot doesn't love NASCAR? Why do the conservatives who'd object to that hate America so much as to deny the hard-working Joe Sixpacks who build the tracks without which NASCAR wouldn't exist?

After all, between the four examples in the Times article (plus $223 million for Alaska fishermen) you've got a whole .00052 of the entire cost, in other words one half of one-tenth of one percent of the $700 billion cost. And it's actually going to the small businesses Palin was yammering about the other night.

Why do conservatives hate the American entrepreneur?