This provision was not in the House version of the bill, and was not in the Senate version of the bill. And now Carl Levin wants to sneak it into the conference report — despite the fact that Republican supporters are insisting that the bill be slimmed down?

General Motors Corp. may win protection from a tax liability of as much as $7 billion when Senate stimulus legislation moves to a conference committee, Senator Carl Levin said.

“There’s some strong feeling that it ought to be included in the conference report,” Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said of the protection in comments to reporters today. “There’s strong support for it.”

The $838 billion stimulus measure the Senate approved today doesn’t include the tax provision for GM, nor does the House version. A “technical change” that won’t increase the cost of the legislation could be added in the House-Senate conference committee before the proposal is voted on again in both chambers, Levin said.

Do lawmakers see any tension between a new culture of ‘accountability,’ and a $7 billion payoff that hasn’t even gotten a Congressional hearing yet?

On the other hand, Geithner doesn’t pay taxes, Daschle doesn’t pay taxes, Al Franken doesn’t pay taxes, Rahm Emanuel doesn’t pay taxes… why should GM suddenly have to?