"Housing" bill bails out Cerberus

Hey, Democratic Senators and Congrresscritters, thanks so much for looking out for the little guy/gal once again!


Here, buried in the "housing" bailout bill, is a nice little gift for Cerberus, the private capital company that bought Chrysler from Mercedes:
(I've attached the entire gobbledygook showing what the credit is, and then check the bolded section for who it applies to!)

SEC. 3081. ELECTION TO ACCELERATE THE AMT AND RESEARCH CREDITS IN LIEU OF BONUS DEPRECIATION.
....
(b) Application to Certain Automotive Partnerships-
(1) IN GENERAL- If an applicable partnership elects the application of this subsection--
(A) the partnership shall be treated as having made a payment against the tax imposed by chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for any applicable taxable year of the partnership in the amount determined under paragraph (3),
(B) in the case of any eligible qualified property placed in service by the partnership during any applicable taxable year--
(i) section 168(k) of such Code shall not apply in determining the amount of the deduction allowable with respect to such property under section 168 of such Code,
(ii) the applicable depreciation method used with respect to such property shall be the straight line method, and
(C) the amount of the credit determined under section 41 of such Code for any applicable taxable year with respect to the partnership shall be reduced by the amount of the deemed payment under subparagraph (A) for the taxable year.
(2) TREATMENT OF DEEMED PAYMENT-
(A) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate shall not use the payment of tax described in paragraph (1) as an offset or credit against any tax liability of the applicable partnership or any partner but shall refund such payment to the applicable partnership.
(B) NO INTEREST- The payment described in paragraph (1) shall not be taken into account in determining any amount of interest under such Code.
(3) AMOUNT OF DEEMED PAYMENT- The amount determined under this paragraph for any applicable taxable year shall be the least of the following:
(A) The amount which would be determined for the taxable year under section 168(k)(4)(C)(i) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as added by the amendments made by this section) if an election under section 168(k)(4) of such Code were in effect with respect to the partnership.
(B) The amount of the credit determined under section 41 of such Code for the taxable year with respect to the partnership.
(C) $30,000,000, reduced by the amount of any payment under this subsection for any preceding taxable year.
(4) DEFINITIONS- For purposes of this subsection--
(A) APPLICABLE PARTNERSHIP- The term `applicable partnership' means a domestic partnership that--
(i) was formed effective on August 3, 2007, and
(ii) will produce in excess of 675,000 automobiles during the period beginning on January 1, 2008, and ending on June 30, 2008.

Memo to Sen. Reid, Cong. Pelosi: I lost some money at the casino last year. Where's my #@*!ing bailout?!?

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exceptional catch!

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Wikipedia on Cerberus.

I note they bought the 51% stake of GM's GMAC (financing) unit....

Ha! How the garbage gets taken out by friends.

Note Dan Quayle is their spokesman.

When, if ever, are people of both parties going to plain call out this pay back after leaving office of Politicians to sit on boards or be spokesmen for these sorts of companies who magically get to write and more importantly, about the only things that get passed, legislation from Congress and the administration?

I saw Pelosi on the daily show go on and on about how they simply can't do anything until they get 60 Democratic Senators.

Now what kind of bullshit is that when the Corporate party has the most representation in both Congress and the White House (Judiciary TBD!)

Remember also that because

Cerebrus took Chrysler private, this little treat isn't going to show up on any corporate annual report.

This aspect of the effort to take public companies private is going to play hell in the long time, because it's going to remove a layer of transparency that's always existed because of SEC reporting requirements.

In other news, have you seen about Nissan.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nissan North America Inc. said Wednesday it will offer buyouts to about 6,000 employees at the company's two Tennessee plants and eliminate a night shift at one plant because rising fuel prices and the economic downturn have slowed sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The technicians and salaried employees at the assembly plant in Smyrna and powertrain plant in Decherd will be offered a lump sum of $100,000 or $125,000 depending on tenure, as well as medical and car purchase benefits, the company said.

And there's been talk that Toyota may be planning to do the same thing down at its plant in Southern Indiana.

With Detroit switched over to VEBAs this is likely to put these companies at a cost advantage as compared to the transplants in a matter of a few years.