Congress is working on a multibillion-dollar tax breaks package to help revive businesses destroyed in the wake of this year's hurricanes. Unfortunately, one Virginia congressmen couldn't help instilling morality and judgment into the effort by "exclud[ing] the casinos and country clubs underpinning the Gulf Coast's leisure economy."
The bill's many tax breaks would not extend to a list of leisure industries, including country clubs, casinos, hot tub facilities, liquor stores, massage parlors, golf courses, racetracks and tanning parlors.Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., led the effort to carve those businesses out of the bill. He said Congress should not allow "our constituents' hard-earned tax dollars, in these kinds of record deficits, to subsidize the rebuilding of a massage parlor, a liquor store or a casino."
Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley said she was "astounded" and "angry" that Wolf won the carve-out for the legal gaming business, "a business that employs thousands of people in the region and generates millions of dollars in tax revenue."
Now, Berkley has a vested interest in supporting the gambling industry - being from Nevada and all that comes with that. But she does have a point - nobody can dispute that the tourism industry is critical for the Gulf region. Who does Frank Wolf think he is, moralizing on high and picking winners and losers in the reconstruction while the livelihoods of everyday Americans hang in the balance? Perhaps if he's worried about record deficits, maybe he shouldn't have voted for the Bridge to Nowhere?