In a crass demonstration of either their inability or unwillingness to make the necessary trade-offs to help reduce the federal deficit and pay for the war on terrorism, potential war on Iraq, and other national priorities, a handful of lawmakers have hijacked a bill meant to benefit our troops so that they can pad the bottom lines of a few of their friends and campaign contributors.

The Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act is a no-brainer bill that was written, as its name implies, to provide some needed tax benefits to members of the military. Now that the tax writers on the House Ways and Means committee have loaded this must-pass legislation with special interest giveaways, it might as well be called the “Bring Home the Bacon Act.”

In addition to treating home sales by members of the armed services more equitably, this bill now includes at least 14 amendments that reward the horseracing industry and bow and arrow manufacturers, as well as old standards such as the drug, timber, and farm industries. The free-for-all is estimated to cost taxpayers upwards of $371 million.

Among the add-ons is a measure to repeal a ten percent excise tax on fishing tackle boxes that will cost $30 million over the next ten years. The amendment was put forth by Rep. Gerald C. Weller (R-IL) on behalf of Plano Molding Co., an Illinois company located just outside his district in Speaker Hastert’s district.

Private timberland owners will benefit greatly from a provision that will treat timber sale profits the same as those made from the sale of land, lowering the tax paid on those profits to the capital gains rate.

Other provisions in the bill, such as one that will exempt certain farmers from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), demonstrate the extent to which members of Congress will do just about anything to end run the legislative process. There is little doubt that the AMT needs to be reformed, but this is neither the time nor the place for that to happen. Rather than taking a piecemeal approach to reform the AMT one interest group at a time, Congress needs to reform it all at once.

The only group that can be sure not to see much money from these sweetheart deals is the American public. With all that pork being handed out, it seems that some members of Congress are in denial about the soaring deficit, sluggish economy, and looming war. Unless Congress is planning to win a few hundred million at the racetrack, it’s time to wake up and get our priorities in order. Let’s lose the amendments, and put the fairness back into the Armed Services Tax Fairness Act when the House votes on this bill tomorrow.