echoes of Pynchon's politics

[Doug Millison]

...in an article called "Buy-Partisanship Alive and Well" at

http://www.publiccampaign.org/ouch12_5_00.html
"While the nation's attention has been riveted on the presidential 
vote recount in Florida, on November 15th President Bill Clinton 
quietly signed a new law that means tens of billions of dollars in 
tax breaks for a select group of major corporations. The new law, 
"The FSC Repeal & Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000," 
offers an estimated $62 billion in tax relief over the next decade to 
Boeing Company, General Electric, Monsanto, RJR Nabisco and other 
companies that are major exporters-and major campaign contributors 
here at home. It passed the Senate on November 1st and the House on 
November 14th.  Thanks to an earlier version of this tax break, 
Boeing Co. saved $685.5 million in U.S. taxes between 1991 and 1998, 
10 percent of its net income during those years, according to Tax 
Notes, a trade publication. In the 2000 elections, the company's 
executives and PAC have given some $1.5 million in hard and soft 
money to federal candidates and parties, 56 percent to Republicans, 
44 percent to Democrats. General Electric saved $746.0 million 
between 1991 and 1998. In the current election cycle, GE gave $1.5 
million in campaign contributions, 64 percent to Republicans. The new 
law is a rewrite and expansion of one dating back to the Nixon 
Administration, which allows U.S. corporations to shelter 15 to 30 
percent of their export profits from taxes. Last year alone, 
corporate use of the rapidly growing tax break cost taxpayers $3.9 
billion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. That's enough 
money to pay the salaries of 100,000 teachers for a year, or to put a 
computer in 1.5 million classrooms. Last year, the World Trade 
Organization (WTO) responded to a European Union complaint that 
scheme was an illegal tax subsidy for U.S. multinational companies by 
ruling that as of October 1, 2000, the European Union could impose 
100% tariffs on U.S. exports, unless the U.S. changed or repealed the 
law. But the new version of the tax break is no more pleasing to the 
Europeans than the old one. In response, they have already asked the 
WTO to approve some $4 billion a year in trade sanctions against the 
U.S. It is not clear how this international trade feud will end. But 
one thing is clear-if you have a million dollars or so to spare, then 
you might want to think about investing it in Congress and the 
president. Then, come tax day on April 15, you will reap great 
dividends. "


With regard to Pynchon's ongoing environmental concerns, which are 
evident throughout his writings:  Another part of the real show that 
the Florida sideshow has obscured --  the U.S. efforts (in response 
to multinational corporate needs) to sabotage progress in the recent 
global warming talks -- good article on this by Bill McKibben at 
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/mckibben112700.stm. 
"[...] instead of a straightforward plan to wean the world from coal 
and oil and gas, there was a Rube Goldberg machine that attempted to 
meet every national interest," McKibben writes, echoing Pynchon's 
attention to the exploitation of these deep strata of the earth for 
corporate profit and to feed the War.

Millisonically,
Doug
-- 
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