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> They can't just call up their lobbyist who's already scheduled to golf with a congressman every other weekend and tell them to bring it up on their next trip.
by rat87 6y ago
> They can't just call up their lobbyist who's already scheduled to golf with a congressman every other weekend and tell them to bring it up on their next trip.
I think you're vastly underestimating the impact of lobbying and overestimating the cost
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/708195702 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/708195702
Tax Professor wants to try to get a policy (automatically filled out tax returns for CA state taxes)he thinks will be good for the public passed.
He gets nowhere.
Hires a lobbyist at a discount
> BANKMAN: They gave me a deal because they thought it would be kind of fun to work for this crazed professor.
> VANEK SMITH: They were working for you, just you?
> BANKMAN: Yeah. They were working for me. And so the normal price, I think, would have been $140,000 to get Mike's services. But he gave it to me for only 35. So I paid 35,000, I believe.
Got a lot closer (opt in automatic filling) despite massive opposition from anti tax groups and tax prep software lobbyists
- imajoredinecon 6y agoReading that transcript actually left me thinking the system worked okay in this particular case, even though it led to a bad (in my opinion) policy outcome. The money bought access, not results: in the end, the legislators who voted against largely it did so because of personal belief the policy was bad or because of political pressure from an important campaign group (+), not because of money from Intuit (and it didn't take too much in absolute terms---$140K at full price---to equalize the lobbying power of a single-person pet project with that of a multibillion-dollar company with a strong vested interest in seeing the legislation defeated). (+): I'm not personally a Grover Norquist fan, but he's influential because a lot of Americans really don't like taxes, and the argument that people will be more opposed to taxes if they're more burdensome does seem internally consistent.
- pstuart 6y agoNobody likes taxes, and Norquist just makes it more painful. Ideologues are jerks.
- nobody9999 6y ago>Nobody likes taxes, and Norquist just makes it more painful. Ideologues are jerks. Not nobody. I'm one of the ones who agrees with (purportedly) Oliver Wendell Holmes[0]. [0] "I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization." Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/13/taxes-civilize/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/13/taxes-civilize/
- pstuart 6y agoI'm ok with paying taxes (for the reason cited) but I don't like paying them. And part of that is the inconvenience that Norquist has worked to ensure.