This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Kohl and Feingold Help out Harley-Davidson

Sen. Feingold and Sen. Kohl are attempting to help out Harley-Davidson with the big stimulus bill. People will be able to get tax benefits by buys motorcycles a long with buying cars. The stimulus bill is currently up to 789$ billion dollars. It should be on the president's desk soon. That is very good for Harley because the company is planning to cut its work force by 1,100 jobs. Hopefully with this bill, Harley-Davidson can bounce back.

2 comments:

TRKelly said...

Having tax cuts for people to buy large ticket items is questionable. Has anyone seen the price tag on a Harley lately? They are just as expensive as any car or light duty truck. Government can give all the tax breaks they want to consumers of these vehicles, but how are they going to pay for them if they can not get 1. a job, 2. credit to purchase them, or even 3. when they can buy a cheaper model from a different manufacturer. Do these tax breaks go towards foreign producers of these vehicles? I wouldn't think so, but that is what most people are buying nowadays since they are cheaper than American produced goods.

j oddsen said...

This is an interesting addition by Senators Kohl and Feingold and brings us back to one of the first debates we had in class. That debate was about "pork." It is my belief that there is a fine line between helping out local business and pork. I would share the concern of TRKelly in that I would consider the purchase of a Harley Davidson more of a luxury item rather than a purchase out of necessity. What I am more interested in is whether or not the rest of the class views this as pork or as helping out Wisconsin's economy?

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