4 ms·

Your elected representative could represent your interests too, if you could hire and fire your representative as easily as you can a tax preparer.

tootie 5y ago
For me personally, my reps represent me very well. They just only 1 vote each and Congress has reps for all over. It's important to stress that Intuit can lobby all they want but each rep is responsible for their own vote. I seriously doubt any of them actually don't understand the implications of what they do. A lot of voters simply vote against their interests. It's the entire raison d'etre for Republicans to never fund a government service that can be done by private companies and they wear that philosophy on their sleeves so it's not like voters are being fooled. That being said, it's also important to understand that a free file program isn't just sitting behind a door waiting to be unlocked. If there was political will to make it happen, it would take a multi-year outlay of funds to design, build and operate a new digital product and the federal government has a less than stellar track record of delivering on that kind of thing. And you can bet that even if it actually happens, that Republicans would make it a campaign plank to tell everyone how terrible it is and prevent broad enough adoption for it to be worthwhile.
- stretchwithme 5y ago
  Those who get their interest represented say they're represented well. Those who don't get their interests represented well disagree.
  - tootie 5y ago
    Yeah, well, people's interests don't all align. There's tens of millions of people who look at this headline and say "this is good, IRS should not compete with private businesses". My rep represents me well. She got like 85% of the vote in her district. She votes along with my interests nearly all the time. But the fact she frequently votes for things that don't end up getting signed into law isn't her fault. The fact that a lot of policies I like don't even get voted on because they don't have a chance isn't her fault either. Suffice it to say, we most likely don't have Free File because of voters.
    - stretchwithme 5y ago
      Yes, people's interests don't all align. But they'd actually be better represented with proportional representation than one representing people solely by geography. Because geography is just one thing that matters.

tootie 5y ago

For me personally, my reps represent me very well. They just only 1 vote each and Congress has reps for all over. It's important to stress that Intuit can lobby all they want but each rep is responsible for their own vote. I seriously doubt any of them actually don't understand the implications of what they do. A lot of voters simply vote against their interests. It's the entire raison d'etre for Republicans to never fund a government service that can be done by private companies and they wear that philosophy on their sleeves so it's not like voters are being fooled. That being said, it's also important to understand that a free file program isn't just sitting behind a door waiting to be unlocked. If there was political will to make it happen, it would take a multi-year outlay of funds to design, build and operate a new digital product and the federal government has a less than stellar track record of delivering on that kind of thing. And you can bet that even if it actually happens, that Republicans would make it a campaign plank to tell everyone how terrible it is and prevent broad enough adoption for it to be worthwhile.

stretchwithme 5y ago
Those who get their interest represented say they're represented well. Those who don't get their interests represented well disagree.
- tootie 5y ago
  Yeah, well, people's interests don't all align. There's tens of millions of people who look at this headline and say "this is good, IRS should not compete with private businesses". My rep represents me well. She got like 85% of the vote in her district. She votes along with my interests nearly all the time. But the fact she frequently votes for things that don't end up getting signed into law isn't her fault. The fact that a lot of policies I like don't even get voted on because they don't have a chance isn't her fault either. Suffice it to say, we most likely don't have Free File because of voters.
  - stretchwithme 5y ago
    Yes, people's interests don't all align. But they'd actually be better represented with proportional representation than one representing people solely by geography. Because geography is just one thing that matters.