Source: NYT 12/17/17.
Chart: Historical U.S. Tax Rates
The corporate tax rate is now half of what it was in the post-war 1950s “boom” times.
Tag: Tax Policy
Hogs at the Trough…
Fund-raisers held by members of the conference committee during the tax reform debate were hot tickets for tax lobbyists, who eagerly forked over a few hundred — or even a few thousand — dollars for face time with lawmakers who controlled the fate of valued loopholes.
Some sadly business-as-usual quotes from a Times article on the behind the scenes efforts of Washington lobbyists around the Republican 2017 tax bill.
In all, more than half of the 11,000 registered lobbyists in Washington reported working on tax-related issues through the first nine months of the year, according to a report released this month by the nonprofit group Public Citizen.
…
No matter how convincing the policy analysis or how steady the constituent pressure, though, personal and financial connections to policymakers remained among the most important currency on K Street during the tax debate, as has been the case in legislative battles for decades.
Fund-raisers held by members of the conference committee during the tax reform debate were hot tickets for tax lobbyists, who eagerly forked over a few hundred — or even a few thousand — dollars for face time with lawmakers who controlled the fate of valued loopholes.
Mr. Portman has held fund-raisers in recent weeks, and has another one scheduled for next week at the fashionable Charlie Palmer Steak restaurant across the street from the Capitol. Attendees are being asked to donate $1,000 each through their political action committees or $250 in personal funds, according to an invitation, which bills the event as a “birthday breakfast” for Mr. Portman, whose birthday is the day before the event.
A Republican who attended a fund-raiser late last month for another member of the conference committee, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, said several lobbyists asked the senator about tax reform. Mr. Cornyn kept his responses vague, telling attendees that he was hopeful that the process could be completed before Christmas.
Source: NYTimes 12/16/17.
Where the Big Money Comes From
[Contributors] are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male….
Just 158 families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign….
They are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the young, by women, and by black and brown voters. Across a sprawling country, they reside in an archipelago of wealth, exclusive neighborhoods dotting a handful of cities and towns. And in an economy that has minted billionaires in a dizzying array of industries, most made their fortunes in just two: finance and energy.
This New York Times article analyzed major early campaign contributors (individuals and PACs). The graphic of Monopology houses shows the distribution of these interests.
And below is a map of where those wealthy donors come from. If money = influence, then the map below demonstrates that influence ≠ votes.
And what do the rich donors get for their access and influence? One answer appears to be an generous tax code rewrite, as suggested in the below chart and more fully discussed in this article, that starts with a statement that would only shock the naive and the corrupt:
The very richest are able to quietly shape tax policy that will allow them to shield billions in income.
