4 ms·

Intuit's lobbyists will ensure this doesn't come to fruition.

ahoy 11y ago
Legislation can get past powerful lobbyists if there's enough public momentum. It happened with Tobacco. I'm not terribly hopeful that this particular bill will pass, but I'm glad to see Warren bringing the issue up.
- afarrell 11y ago
  This is because most lobbyists can only offer campaign donations, and then only implicitly. That isn't what politicians really want; They want votes. If they have campaign money, they might be able to use advertising and organizing to turn that into votes, but it is no sure thing. A few lobbying groups, like AARP and the NRA actually can bring votes to a candidate and that is where the real power is. They have a list of people who care about their pet issue and can send them mail saying "candidate X proposed HR.1337 which does foo; Candidate X fights for your rights." Until recently, the only organization with a large list of people who were frustrated with turbotax was Intuit. However, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit now both have records of large numbers of people griping about taxes. Why has Facebook not yet exposed an API that let you advertise to people who are frustrated with a given concept? It seems like a great way to find folks that have a certain pain point.
- zeveb 11y ago
  > Legislation can get past powerful lobbyists if there's enough public momentum. It happened with Tobacco. Anti-tobacco legislation was passed due to powerful lobbyists.
jchendy 11y ago
How do lobbyists actually influence what happens to a bill?
- abawany 11y ago
  Sometimes they write it: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/243973620/when-lobbyists-literally-write-the-bill http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/243973... . Scary.
bcheung 11y ago
I'm not sure. Most of the large tax software companies give the low end product away for free or close to free. They make their money from people with more complicated scenarios not people filing 1040EZ's.

ahoy 11y ago

Legislation can get past powerful lobbyists if there's enough public momentum. It happened with Tobacco. I'm not terribly hopeful that this particular bill will pass, but I'm glad to see Warren bringing the issue up.

afarrell 11y ago
This is because most lobbyists can only offer campaign donations, and then only implicitly. That isn't what politicians really want; They want votes. If they have campaign money, they might be able to use advertising and organizing to turn that into votes, but it is no sure thing. A few lobbying groups, like AARP and the NRA actually can bring votes to a candidate and that is where the real power is. They have a list of people who care about their pet issue and can send them mail saying "candidate X proposed HR.1337 which does foo; Candidate X fights for your rights." Until recently, the only organization with a large list of people who were frustrated with turbotax was Intuit. However, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit now both have records of large numbers of people griping about taxes. Why has Facebook not yet exposed an API that let you advertise to people who are frustrated with a given concept? It seems like a great way to find folks that have a certain pain point.
zeveb 11y ago
> Legislation can get past powerful lobbyists if there's enough public momentum. It happened with Tobacco. Anti-tobacco legislation was passed due to powerful lobbyists.

jchendy 11y ago

How do lobbyists actually influence what happens to a bill?

abawany 11y ago
Sometimes they write it: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/243973620/when-lobbyists-literally-write-the-bill http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/243973... . Scary.

bcheung 11y ago

I'm not sure. Most of the large tax software companies give the low end product away for free or close to free. They make their money from people with more complicated scenarios not people filing 1040EZ's.