Tom Coburn: “I wanted to respond to some comments by the chairman of the Finance Committee. The explanation of why we have a $250…”

“I wanted to respond to some comments by the chairman of the Finance Committee. The explanation of why we have a $250 million earmark for the movie industry was that when we attempted to give them this earmark before, somebody took it out, and now we are going to put it back. The consequence, however, belies the fact that we are only doing this for 1 year. If it is something they deserve and it should be equal, why wouldn't it be there every year? The second point is that the movie industry gets to take advantage of every depreciation out there that every other business has. There was some debate in the House last year on whether they were truly manufacturers. But they also now have $15 million for every movie in direct writeoffs above their depreciation if they produce 75 percent of those costs in this country. If they do it in a low employment area, they get another $20 million. To say we are righting something that was wrong before doesn't fit with common sense. If we are righting it, let's put it in forever--if that is what we are trying to do. But in this bill we do it for 2009 only. The second point I will make is that this bill is without any sacrifice. When President Obama was elected, one of the things he campaigned on was an item-by-item look at the Federal budget, to get rid of programs that don't work, get rid of lower priority programs that might work but are not efficient and are not a priority.”