The Angle

Last night, the Senate approved a massive financial rescue package, addressing the mounting crisis on Wall Street. The Senate-passed bill, H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, authorizes the federal government to spend up to $700 billion to purchase troubled assets from financial institutions to stabilize the American financial system.

The Senate-passed bill extends a number of key tax incentives promoting energy efficiency that the AIA has long championed.  Of particular concern to the AIA, the Senate-passed bill will extend the energy-efficient commercial buildings tax deduction until 2013 and will ensure millions of middle-income Americans are not subjected to paying the Alternative Minimum Tax.

 To improve the bill’s chances of passing the House, the Senate included the provisions below:

• Energy tax credits and incentives to encourage energy-efficient buildings, wind and refined coal production, new biomass facilities, wave and tide electricity generators, solar energy property improvements, CO2 capturing, plug-in electric drive vehicles, idling reduction units on truck engines, cellulosic biofuels ethanol production, energy-efficient houses, offices, dishwashers, clothes washers and refrigerators, and fringe benefits for employees commuting by bicycle.
• Extensions of the AMT patch, tax deductions on state and local sales taxes, tuition, teacher expenses, and real property taxes and tax credits for business research and new market investors.
• A requirement for private insurance plans to offer mental health benefits on par with medical-surgical benefits.
• Tax relief provisions for victims of this summer's Midwestern floods and Hurricane Ike
• Freezing of deductions for sale and exchange of oil and natural gas, mandatory basis reporting by brokers for transactions involving publicly traded securities and an extension of the oil spill tax.

The House is scheduled to vote on this bill tomorrow morning. The vote will most likely be very close.  If you were a member of the Congress, how would you vote?  Is it in the nation’s best interest to 'bailout' these financial institutions?  Is the problem so vast that the only solution is the government’s intervention.