Good morning. I'm Allison Michaels from the Washington Post and this is the Daily 202 for Wednesday, December 23rd.

James is out for the holidays, but I'll be here today with the stories that you need to

know. In today's news, Pfizer and the Trump administration are close to a deal

for more vaccine doses and the US Justice Department sues Walmart alleging it helped fuel the opioid

crisis. But first, the big idea. Congress voted on a spending bill close to midnight on Monday just a few hours

after the bill had been unveiled. Lawmakers claimed that urgent action was

needed to rescue an ailing economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. But my colleague Yagana Torbadi reports

that tucked in the bill was more than 110 billion dollars in tax breaks. Those tax breaks

strayed far from the way the bill was marketed to many Americans.

These giveaways include big tax cuts for liquor producers, for the motorsports entertainment

sector like NASCAR, and for manufacturers of electric motorcycles.

These measures added onto the broader spending bill are known as tax extenders.

They're tax breaks targeted at specific, sometimes niche industries.

And routinely extending these measures has become something of a year-end tradition.

Some lawmakers allege the votes largely benefit special interest groups who stand to gain financially

from the outcome. These tax extenders are designed to be temporary but are frequently renewed often at the

urging of industry lobbyists and often during late night votes at the end of the

year like the one we just saw. Tax experts and good governance advocates

have criticized

such short-term tax relief extensions

arguing that they hide the true cost of the cuts

and they advantage industries with the most well-connected lobbyists.

...