FAIRNESS????
O, please…..
Is there just one wooden arrow maker in the US???
How about all others here in the US who did NOT get any breaks???

Good points!

It’s not very fiscally conservative to put an extra 700 bill on the credit card and then cut taxes.

I was curious about that odd bit attached to the legislation and decided to educate myself more about it. For reasons unknown to me, the federal government levies an excise tax of $.43 on arrow shafts. The list of excise taxes the federal government collects is a bit bewildering. Have a look at the IRS form:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f720.pdf

In theory these taxes are due no matter if the product is manufactured in the US or imported. In practice it is of course easier to collect from a US based manufacturer than from the correct spot in the importation chain.

The provision added to the rescue bill excuses small arrows designed for bows of under 30 lbs. pull weight from these taxes. Such bows are usually used by children at summer camp for archery training. Heavier duty hunting arrows are still subject to the tax. The arrow tax is part of a group of taxes on “ammunition” which date back to 1919, a time when excise taxes and import duties were essentially the only source of income for the federal government. For reasons I don’t understand, in 1991 the collection of firearms and related ammunition taxes was moved from the IRS to the ATF, but arrows and fishing gear were left with the IRS.

Shouldn’t the question be, why is there a $.43 tax on every arrow? Is the idea to make arrows expensive so people won’t buy them as the argument for cigarette excise taxes goes? Why is there an excise tax on electric trolling motors for boats and fishing tackle boxes (3%) but not on golf clubs?

Oddly enough, conservatives normally cheer any form of tax reduction, but the ~$140M of tax reductions added to the bank bailout bill is suddenly anathema to conservatives. Most of the rest of that $140M was the extension of about to expire tax breaks for R&D and alternative energy and a provision to reduce the impact of the alternative minimum tax on the growing number of people who are getting caught in it’s trap. Dirty rotten scoundrels in the Senate cutting some taxes. How dare they!

Given the horrible education and lack of historic perspective that many of America’s youth have it may surprise them to learn that Japan and Germany lost the war.

The city where I live, Chicago, has the best urban layout and architecture of any American city because it burned to the ground. It isn’t called 2nd city because it takes a back seat to the open garbage pit of New York or the suburban water cooperative called Los Angeles, but because it is the 2nd city of Chicago.

The big three don’t need a strong economy. A strong economy isn’t going to make people cars that are completely substandard to mediocre except for niche Corvette and the increasingly irrelevant GM body-frame-trucks.

What the big three need is to declare Chapter 11 and rise from the ashes as restructured competitive companies without incompetent executives, unnecessary, product line corrupting dealers and crushing legacy costs.

The $25 Billion auto bailout was a mistake, only to be eclipsed by the $700 $840 Billion financial and wooden arrowhead industry bailout that came later.

Neither bailout will likely be enough to save the big three from Bankruptcy; that is a very good thing for the future of the US auto industry.

http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal/?id=336

Or even more?

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

You’d be extremely well off if you currently have at least a 6 month supply of food(keeping in mind the possibility of having no running water or electricity in preparation of it), large amounts of small bills(banks closed, credit cards no good), and good guns and plenty of ammo.

Read this for certain:

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2008/01/most-important-need-in-first-few-days.html