Here, in the words of one member of Congress, are a few of the benefactors of a tax cut bill now creeping through Congress: "cruise ship operators, foreign dog-race gamblers, NASCAR track owners, whaling tribes, bow and arrow makers, Chinese ceiling fan manufacturers, Oldsmobile dealers, and beer and liquor wholesalers."

Not to mention tobacco farmers and possibly the most needy, deprived and underprivileged of all American entrepreneurs, the millionaires who own professional sports franchises.

The legislation in question was supposed to help settle a trade dispute with the European Union, but the measure has since ballooned to some 960 pages and been loaded up with every manner of tax break for the above-named special interests, and more.

The latest is a provision that would grant the owners of professional sports franchises -- like, say, the New York Yankees' George Steinbrenner, personal net worth $225 million -- expanded tax write-offs, including the full value of lucrative radio and television contracts over 15 years.

The indirect result of the provision, according to sports-economics experts quoted by The New York Times, would be to add an estimated 5 percent of value to each professional sports franchise -- a $2 billion windfall for a $41 billion "industry" already noted for its overpaid athletes, indulged by overstuffed owners.

As is typical with many of the special deals in the legislation, this one was slipped into the bill without hearings or debate. That's the way the Republican-controlled Congress works these days. There's not even a pretense of public need.

The sponsors will tell you this bill will "create jobs," or, in the case of the Oldsmobile dealers, who are going out of business this year, ease the landing in today's uncertain economy.

We would be willing to predict that owners of the nation's baseball, football, basketball and hockey franchises would be hard-pressed to even estimate how many jobs will be created in their business. Does the nation need to subsidize more athletes with salaries equal to the annual budgets of some Third World countries (and attitudes to match)? We think not.

This bill is as big a picking of the taxpayers' pockets as has ever been pushed blindly through the halls of Congress. On greased skids, it's already passed both the House and the Senate and needs only to slide through a conference committee to make its way to President Bush's desk this fall.