Government Work Done, Tax Policy Writers Decamp to Lobbying Jobs

Headline: Government Work Done, Tax Policy Writers Decamp to Collect Their Payoffs. Draining the swamp. Riiight.

Rats deserting a sinking ship, carrying their diseases to other side of "government."

“The actual number of lobbyists has increased dramatically.” And Trump said he would squash lobbying. From one swamp to a swampier more dismal place, the lobbyist. Paid lobbying should be illegal, it is the bane and scourge of our democracy.

“Companies are looking to better understand the legislation and potentially affect future changes, which is why they are snatching up top talent,” said Ken Spain, a Republican consultant who works on financial and tax issues. The tax changes were written very hastily, and with no input from any Democrats. You can count on it that there will be drafting errors that end up saying things that were never intended, or which leave specific situations undefined. The tax bill will prove to be a "full employment act" for tax lawyers and accountants. It will be a couple of years after March/April 2019 (when the first business/personal tax returns under the new law are filed) that the first audits will be conducted. It will be a few years after that before the cases where the tax flier and the IRS disagree even get into court and are heard. It will be several years after even that before such cases run through the appeals process, and some of the features of the tax bill are "settled" by a court. In some instances, Congress will have to amend the tax bill to correct errors that become evident after those appeals. My guess is that it will be somewhere between 6 to 10 years before the law defined by the tax bill will sorted out. Until then, the tax laws will be the "wild West" with all manner of novel interpretations of the words that appear in the statutes.

I am not surprised. It is a typical GOP maneuver for businesses and the tax law writers to continue being dishonest. Who is paying taxes these days with Trump not paying them for decades ,Catholic Church and evangelicals no taxes and millions of workers getting breaks. Remember without taxes government ceases to exist and libraries close , jails , police forces and road repair. Ask Curry County , Oregon residents what they lost by listening to the GOP lies by not voting for a tax increase.

Meh, there's nothing new here. This happens every time an admin, R or D, passes a new tax law. This time its Trump so its just fresh fodder for more Trump bashing

Ah yes, a big fat tax break is not enough...how to get that tax liability down to zero? While the rest of us little people lost all our own tax breaks for a miniscule temporary rate decrease (which means many of us will actually pay MORE). Corporations owe this country something. They are the beneficiaries of government paid for infrastructure, education, national security, and commerce laws and so much more. I would so much rather they pay their dang taxes than lavishing all that money on trying to NOT pay them. Since they failed to put any of their tax windfall into meaningful job and wage increases, all this tax cut did was drain our treasury and increase our debt and deficit.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to find the loopholes since they wrote and inserted the loopholes. The whole kabuki dance is a sham.

How hard is that to do? Find a truck with a corporate logo and drive it through!

This is a must read article for people who try to understand how the US democracy REALLY work. The rules of the game are literraly written by lobbyists who are hired by the moneyed class. Their primary aim is to protect and to perpetuate their wealth. They pick legislators and supreme court justices to do their biddings such as 'citizens united' and 'gerrymandering'. These decisions corrupt the ideals of democracy. It's legalized corruption.

What is going to be left of this country when the corporations have it all and the citizens are struggling to live?

So they borrow 1.5 trillion from U.S. taxpayers, give most of it to wealthy people and corporations, toss a few crumbs to the middle class, then plan to have the same middle class (and poor) pay back the loan through cuts to Medicare and SS plus a bunch of other regressive taxes. Not satisfied (they are insatiable) with bulldozing the nation's resources to the wealthy, they now want find ways to squeeze out more through newly mined tax loopholes.

Every change made by Republicans in their rush to write the tax bill was done to satisfy some constituency. The tax code is already a Byzantine mess or conglomeration of previous rewrites. And this latest iteration once again failed miserably to make the tax code simpler and more fair. It only stands to reason that the individual architects of these (and previous) changes are a valuable commodity - able to help businesses find all the hidden goodies. Just part of the however-many-legged stool that is supporting our government's steady march to privatization of services. The Holy Grail is gaining control of the $4-5 trillion budget of tax dollars flowing annually through government agencies into the hands of Privateers. A flow of cash so HUGE that no one really understands just how big is truly is: a million dollars x 4 x a million! A million million times four. Each year. That's a lot of money. A huge cash pie where controlling any possible piece is worth fighting for.

Leaving Congress and the Administration to join the private sector has nothing to do with the swing right of the Republican party and the chaotic nature of the last 18 months. Nothing at all... (right?)

Legislation is passed, or not, based on pressure applied to legislators. This can come from a number of factors: constituents’ letters, lobbyists and campaign financiers. (Sound of gramophone slowly running out of wound-up power...till it’s silent.) And that, class, is how democracy trends to oligarchy.

The 14 point drop in the corporate tax rate alone saved Berkshire Hathaway $29 billion in a year. Now the loopholes are being found and shared from coast to coast. Does anyone really believe this bill will 'only' cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years?

Instead of "draining the swamp" this administration has created a bigger and deeper swamp. Businesses that now hire ex-govenemtn officials to try and find loopholes in the new tax code are probably the same people who crafted the law with loopholes which is self-serving and sleazy at best. Most of these "loopholes" a re other means for cheating the government and down stream to our citizenry. If not illegal certainly unethical.