Something important to note: the mental health parity bill only affects insurance policies that currently cover mental health, and only plans that cover 50 or more employees.

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

The Mental Parity part is just bizarre. Don't get me wrong, I like it... just weird to be part of this.

Excellent post Carey!

One typo, you said "cut and past" instead of "cut and paste". :)

Now to dive into all those delicious links!

So whyd they bloat it up like that?

So, what does it do for people like me who were victims of predatory lending, but already lost their homes to foreclosure?

@ninjatoddler: So congress would pass it.

that's great, we're just gonna pull a tarp over the whole thing and hope that solves it. tarps are good.

@ninjatoddler: They're bribes for the congressman who wouldn't vote for it the first time, paid for with your tax dollars.

@jurijuri: I wanted to point that out. thankfully, I have *real* insurance through my husband, but the poor crazies at my office will likely still suffer since our bosses keep the employment number at 49 for a reason. Illinois (iirc) even has mental health parity here, but (again, iirc) only for companies 50+.

a good thing, though! I welcome this portion of the bill.

this is most of the nice happy pork that added and also the benefits, but what about the down side? Where did this money come from? What will it do to inflation, which really is a tax on the American people? If inflation goes up, it's the same as raising the taxes...I would like to see a who separate article on the bad things that will come with this.

The AMT is the bane of my existence. Couples up to 69k and singles to 44k WTF? The federal tax system really nails those of us that live in CA and many east coast states.

There is nothing on the list in the article that does shiat for me. I have a 401k but not much in it and I am only 31 so I have a while for retirement and the market would recover either way. My other retirement money is unaffected by this fiasco. I don't have 100k in any account so that's not need and I diversify my money anyway. I make too much money to be saved from the AMT and I still rent and if I wanted to buy a house now I can't thanks to people who could not fulfill their obligations.

Perhaps the Mental Parity part will help someday but not now and I don't see it being needed but you never know. For me this is just another transfer payment. Another bill that I get and get no benefit from. Way to live up to that 18% approval rate congress.

@Tank: Especially if it's a tarp made of money. Politicians love money.

Frederic Mishkin - Meyer's grandson and, until he stepped down a month ago, an ally of Ben Bernanke's on the Federal Reserve Board - told me this story the other day, and its moral is obvious enough.

Yeah, that those bastards are going to pull us down with them.

To quote Billy Connolly on this:

"Good ideas go in, and then the f***ing bash them about until they come out a shadow of their former selves"

I think there should be rewards for those who have actually made efforts to continue paying their mortgages on time, I mean call me crazy for rewarding people actually being responsible and doing the right thing.

The FDIC increase was beyond pointless, really.

@2wheelsor4?:

I completely agree. I live in CA and bought in mid-2006 knowing I would probably have to sit out a downturn in the market. I don't think any of us could have predicted the implosion that happened and those who did are now very wealthy (as they should be).

I qualified for every single stipulation of the the previous subprime bailout sponsored by the government except for one small thing, I paid my bills and wasn't behind on either of my mortgages. Because of that I was disqualified.

Now that bailout has a lot of strings attached including the fact the government gets a piece of any equity you make by selling your home, and your credit card transactions go through the IRS so I don't even know if it was something I would have done. But knowing that the only reason I didn't have a choice was because I paid my bills was amazing to me.

Reward those who actually read their loan documents and made a fiscally responsible decision for their individual situation.

@hmk: It must be 50+ since I live in Illinois too ;)

Let's just say that if my husband's company was larger, this bill would save my household almost $1000/year. Yeeeah.

"And if you're a renter living in foreclosed home, you can stay, so long as you stick to the terms of your lease." Hmm, does that mean the bank can't kick them out? Gee great! Did they include a provision that says banks have to start paying the monthly Condo/HOA maintenance fees as soon as the foreclosure procedure starts? Because if they didn't that just means that the people living in the foreclosed condos can stay using condo services even thought the original unit owners stopped paying their monthly maintenance fees because they are on foreclosure anyway and have nothing to lose. I know that in the end the Condo Association finally gets the money they are owed but in the meantime there is not enough money to cover the monthly bills. All of us normal hardworking people who are living within our means will have to start paying higher fees just to cover the cost of these moochers! Looks like in the end the good guy always gets screwed.

Back when my grandfather was a kid(early 1920's), he witnessed his father burn an entire field of crop.

When my grandfather asked why he burned the field, my great-grandfather replied, "Because the vegetation that is there is not needed anymore. By burning it away, I'm saving the effort of working on it and not wasting time on something that will not feed us. When the field has fallowed again, I will plow and it will give us an even richer field."

I never bothered checking if this actually happened but I think the moral is clear. Then again, Ol' Granpappy may have gone insane, which I'm sure a "Mental Parity" bill might have been nice.

@jurijuri: As a mental health professional in training, I couldn't be more happy about this part of the bill. My supervisors have always moaned and groaned about how hard it is as a mental health practitioner (non-MD) to be reimbursed by health insurance companies; they claimed it was the hardest part of the job. Hmmm, so perhaps I really do have a viable future career! (Also, as a current consumer of mental health services, it makes paying the shrink a whole lot easier -- hee.)

The borrower must agree to share with FHA both the equity created at the beginning of this new mortgage and any future appreciation in the value of the home.

This seems kinda sketch, can anyone explain that condition in more detail?

$3 billion in deductions for residents who pay state and local taxes in states that don't have an income tax.
So if you DON'T pay income tax in your state you also get a tax break for paying state and local taxes? WTF? Why? So I can live in LA and continue to pay state, local, and income taxes and get nothing? Awesome!
$5 billion for college tuition deductions;
Does this mean we get MORE to deduct on the interest from student loans?
Can someone elaborate on this one?

Sooo..in other words, those that don't have a state income tax gets another great break, but those of us so unfortunate to live in a state that has sales tax ANS an income tax, gets the screws. And income wise I'm right above that for the AMT. yay! way to go for a good for nothing congress! great accomplishment making most of us feel so left out with a nice bill to go with it.

@jurijuri: Place I work at uses Blue Cross Blue Shield (of Nebraska) and at least until this bill passed, mental health was treated with an absurd deductible before going to the standard co-pay. The rest of the insurance policy is fine, but they screwed hard on mental health so I had to stop visiting my therapist due to it because I couldn't support it financially.

Thankfully though I got over my depression and very frequent suicidal thoughts but she helped alot in dealing with it. I just felt if I didn't have to leave (my choice but its a long story) old employer that had awesome insurance to OK insurance sans mental health, I could have dealt through it better.

At least now its going to have people get the help they need (in most cases) without having to waste away a ton of money doing so.

@veronykah: Some states finance their governments through income taxes, others through sales taxes only. The essence of this provision is that people who live in sales-tax-only states (such as Texas) should be able to deduct their state-government taxes just like residents of income-tax states, since they're essentially the same, just collected at different times.

@Heartless: States that have income tax usually have a much smaller sales tax rate. Texas has no income tax, but sales tax is 8.25% in most places. It would (theoretically) be lower if there were a state income tax, but then the state would get less income from the huge number of "undocumented workers".

@ClutchDude: Farmers burn fields on a regular basis. Certain crops almost need it done every few years.

@chrylis: Keeping track of what was paid out in sales tax would be a nightmare for someone who does itemized deductions. I'll bet that they'll have a standardized deduction that most people will take.

Where I live, sales tax is 8.25% and there's a measure on the November ballot to raise it another .5%. We also pay state income tax...so its not going to help us at all. are we the exception to the rule, or is this common?

@The_Red_Monkey:
The really tough part about AMT is that I am a US citizen but live and work in the UK. Because of AMT I still have to pay US taxes because they base your earnings on world wide income even though I do not live in the US and the exchange rate makes it look like I earn a fortune.

1929 was 1929 and not 2008, but I'm not totally discounting this story.

I think this gets worse before it gets any better. Congress will be back at the problem really soon. Housing prices need to tank whether they like it or not. Affordability needs to strike. The regulation pendulum is swinging back.

You failed to point out that because $850,000,000,000 is being printed out of no where, the value of the dollar is going to drop. Exports will increase in cost, most notably oil prices.

Good luck to the readers who have oil heat this winter.

Also, there's a bike commuter tax credit that employers can pass down, worth something like $240 tax-free per year for upkeep on a bike/related expenses if you use it to regularly commute.

@quail: Correct.

This was part of the tax code until a year or two ago but wasn't renewed. There was a standard deduction you could take unless you wanted to itemize. Unless you bought a big ticket item (car, etc), it wasn't worth the hassle to itemize. But it definitely made a difference in my tax bill and I'm happy to see it come back.

Does it bother anyone that congress member were threatened with martial law if they didn't pass the bill? Wake up people it's real.

@obamaramallama: Absolutely. Split your money up among banks and you can have every dime insured....

Well, until bank after bank gobbles each other up and we are left with just Watchcityfargochase bank.

Hmmm, conspiracy theory, anyone? The gummint is gonna take over all the banks and we are left with just one?

I'm kidding (I hope)

@Canino:

Welcome to New York City - 8.375% sales tax and combined state+city income tax of about 12-13%.

1. Something must be done.
2. This is something.
3. Therefore, this must be done.

@Tank: Are they blue tarps? Because we all know blue tarps are the best!

Ok, now how does the 700 billion price tag affect me?

@ninjatoddler: because in our government, doing what's right for the people (whether each particular members agrees on what's right is another matter) is not enough. One must pander to everyone's interests in order to get a bill passed that could do a lot of good for a lot of the citizens, essentially bribing them with pork that benefits them or a business they have an interest in (as shown by the wooden arrow shaft additions).

This kind of piggybacking and add-in tactic is rampant in Congress. This ia also how politicians get the ability to say that their opponent in a race for office voted against some wonderful thing. The catch is, they attached that wonderful thing for the people to something so wrong and reprehensible that it was all but guaranteed that others would reject it.

@undefined: I'm glad you mentioned that. As someone who has very little money, I am not happy that my 'very little money' will get me even less.

@qwopzxnm:
You've just hit on the big topic for the Obama campaign. You are smart and make smart, informed decisions...Therefore, you don't need help. Other people are dumb and make poor, fiscally irresponsible decisions...therefore, they need help. If the government didn't get help the dumb people, it wouldn't be fair to them. Barack Obama's "Fairness" policies, for the epic loss...

@Toof_75_75:
I don't know how the word "get" got in there...pretend it isn't.

I know raising the FDIC limit was touted to 'restore confidence'. But what about the other effect nobody talks avbout - allowing a depositor to increase their deposit 150%? What effect would that have?

@Toof_75_75: yea we measure the value of a society by how much it helps those that need help. how about that? societies that worry about those that are only on the top eventually fail. name one where we look back at say, "hey what a great place to be in past history." even ronnie had to have mommie change his diapers in his old age. that must have been a real site.

Raising the FDIC limit was really a moot point, and I think, is to protect more of people's wealth.

I seriously doubt, that if you have more money in the bank than is covered by the FDIC, paying your mortgage isn't really a problem, and if you were smart, you wouldn't keep all your eggs in one basket. Though, that in itself is becoming a moot since all banks are quickly becoming part of 3 or 4 really big ones.

Also, woo hoo for devaluing currency and driving up inflation. The pokey few dollars I make are rapidly buying less and less.

@Sidecutter: Yeah, I wish debates and campaign ads would stop bringing up voting records - like you stated, they're generally misleading and I think there is a decent portion of the voting population that does not understand the complexity of some of these bills.

@Shadowfire: Only the House is able to introduce budget bills, so for the Senate to be able to lead on, well, anything budget related, they have to dump it into something completely unrelated.

So actually in this case, we have what is mainly a Mental Health Parity Bill, but also has the bailout stuck onto it.