Last night, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer had an interesting piece on the plight of commercial fishing industry under higher fuel costs.

What’s to be done with the economic dislocations underway in the industry? Fisherman Lewis Hill has an idea:

Well, the government subsidized the farmers; they’ve been bailing the airlines out; they’ve been bailing the bankers out. We need help, too. You know, you watch the news. This government isn’t doing squat.

(Lewis was kind not to use his full ocean-going vocabulary to describe things . . . .)

The piece notes that legislation was introduced last month to give fishermen a temporary income tax credit. That’s S. 3234, The Fisheries Fuel Tax Relief Act of 2008. The bill gives a tax credit based on a complicated formula that goes a little something like this: “an amount equal to the excessive fuel cost paid or incurred by the taxpayer during the taxable year for any creditable fuel used in the trade or business of the taxpayer.” Got it?

Hey, Lewis Hill has a point. When every other industry is getting a hand, why shouldn’t he? But how far does that logic take you?

Here’s the current vote on S. 3234. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article on the bill: