Senate passes financial TARP

TARP (Troubled Assests Relief Program, or Tax Payers aRe P___) version 2.0 passed the Senate 74-25 (the abstain was Senator Kennedy who is on medical leave).  The original bill was amended to add $110 billion in extra tax breaks and some budget spending to sweeten the deal for House dissenters.  It will go to the House Friday for a second go.  If the Economy is truly a heart patient with hardened arteries in need of a triple bypass as Fed Chairman Bernanke suggested, then the House vote will be a true test of the Federal system of Health Care for our economy.

Some new items added:

• Extensive tax credits for renewable energy
• Removal of some AMT rules (incentive stock option triggers?)
• Mandates on Health Care Insurers to cover the Mentally Disabled
• ...