The message big business is sending to Washington is that they like their income inequality, just the way it is. Thank you, very much.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) had the nerve to suggest a tax reform plan, and was immediately smacked around by big business.
The Hill reported:
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The immediate blowback from industry groups to Rep. Dave Camp’s (R-Mich.) proposal illustrates how much harder tax reform becomes when details are put to paper.
It also reveals bigger truths about lobbying in Washington, like how advocates working toward the same broad goal will quickly go on the attack when it comes time to protect their favored tax breaks.
“We could probably send out a press release every day on something in the tax reform bill that we are not necessarily enamored with,” said James Ballantine, chief lobbyist for the American Bankers Association.
Everybody talks about tax reform. Republicans want to do it. Democrats want to do it, but it will probably never happen until the Republican donor base is no longer composed of right wing billionaires and corporations.
Republicans have been struggling for years to raise money from individual donors. The rise of the Citizens United super PACs has only made things worse as competition has increased for the Republican donor dollars.
Democrats also take plenty of money from corporations, but they still have a donor base beyond that. Republicans don’t. It is the classic tale of what happens when Congress threatens to step on a powerful lobby’s toes, even a little bit.
Camp’s tax reform plan is a bad one. It would repeal key individual deductions, and cut corporate taxes by 25%, but it took three years to get a bad plan that special interests shot down in about 3 minutes.
The moral of Dave Camp’s tax plan is that until we get the special interest money out of politics, the will of the people will never be done.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
