A Really Bad Idea: The Hollywood Bailout

If Barack Obama wants to continue down his already rocky path, then he should just go ahead and give a $246 million bailout to his pals in Hollywood. Let's see how well that goes over.

Senate Republicans yesterday stripped a special $246 million tax break for Hollywood producers from President Obama's stimulus package.

"This isn't stimulus. This is a gift," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who wrote the amendment to strike out the giveaway for some of the Democrats' most generous political supporters.

"It's not going to stimulate the economy at all," he said. "What it's going to do is line the pockets of very wealthy individuals already not experiencing the downside of the economy."

The 52-45 vote was largely along party lines, with nearly every Republican voting to remove the Hollywood tax break, joined by 13 Democrats and independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Under the measure, Hollywood moguls would have been allowed to write off half the production and filming costs of big-budget films and TV shows.

Backed by Walt Disney and the Motion Picture Association of America, the provision amounted to an estimated $246 million tax break over 11 years.

The entertainment industry gave nearly $20 million in campaign contributions to Democrats during the 2008 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org.

So a bailout of $246 million over 11 years works out to a tidy $22.36 million annually, a tidy profit on their $20 million investment in Democrats for 2008, and I suspect this does not count individual contributions to Obama.

If the Democrats don't realize the contempt the average American has for the Hollywood elite, by all means go ahead and give them millions of our tax dollars and wait for the reaction.

Which brings to mind Obama's plan to cap the salaries of executives whose companies get government bailout money.

The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan.

Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends.

President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plan to announce the executive compensation plan on Wednesday morning at the White House.

Is there anyone alive who believes Obama would impose a cap on salaries for Hollywood executives who so generously lavished money upon him?