Tom Coburn: “we are in the midst of debating a ``stimulus bill'' that has been brought forth in the hopes of alleviating some of the…”

“we are in the midst of debating a ``stimulus bill'' that has been brought forth in the hopes of alleviating some of the economic pain we have in this country. Principally, I object to many of the provisions in the bill because they are not stimulatory whatsoever. We all know that. We are going to add $1.2 trillion to the debt and we are not fixing the real problem this country is encountering, and that is the absolute collapse of the housing industry. We can spend all the money we want to spend on ``stimulus'' packages--which this one isn't--and it is not going to do a thing, unless we fix housing and the liquidity crisis. I bring up this amendment because it shows how misaligned this bill is. This amendment seeks to eliminate a $246 million earmark. It is nothing but that. It is a tax earmark for the movie industry. Let's put the history out there. The movie industry today can take advantage and write off all of its production costs and take an additional $15 million out of the taxpayers' pocket for every movie they produce in this country, of which 75 percent of the expenses are actually incurred in this country. What we have added is an earmark to markedly increase all movies produced in 2009, which is an additional $246 million. I am not against tax breaks that are general across the board and will be truly a stimulus, but this is a tax break earmark that has a tremendous odor to it.”