7 ms·

Money well spent https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-gave-trump-210621550.html?guccounter=1 https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-g

Money well spent https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-gave-trump-210621550.html?guccounter=1 https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-gave-trum...

grandpoobah 1y ago
Such a cheap bribe holy crap.
- codeddesign 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - epistasis 1y ago
    > Don’t be an idiot. ... failed worse than the Obamacare rollout This is a very rude and inappropriate way to deliver your misinformation. The program was hugely popular and successfull
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
  When you look at the donations politicians receive and the ROI they produce you quickly realize that they are way too cheap. Politicians should ask for way more money so lobbying is not that incredibly profitable.
  - latexr 1y ago
    > Politicians should ask for way more money so lobbying is not that incredibly profitable. Except those corrupt politicians want lobbying to be profitable, so they can profit from it too. And if they ask for too much, they’ll just bribe the next guy or may even try to put their own in office. Can’t have that!
    - c0balt 1y ago
      Healthy competition, the free market has resolved the issues of overpriced bribes. /s
      - potato3732842 1y ago
        I'm surprised that politicians haven't established burdensome and expensive professional compliance and licensure requirements for their own trade to restrict upstart competition. Every other trade pays them to implement the same so it's not like they're not familiar with how to do it.
        nerdponx 1y ago
        No need: campaign financing, low turnout, and incumbent bias are all substantial barriers to entry.
    - gigatree 1y ago
      Ah yes, the free market
    - cogman10 1y ago
      Especially since they so often land jobs for themselves and their kids with the people that lobby them. Kirsten Sinema got a job as a senior lobbiest after her short congressional stint.
      - nerdponx 1y ago
        Synema is a particularly fun example because you can tell where her loyalties laid from her voting record.
  - eru 1y ago
    Compare https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in... and https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on-the-almonds https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on...
  - nerdponx 1y ago
    The individual bribes aren't the whole picture. The bribes are statements of loyalty. If I am reliably donating to your campaign every couple of years, then I am probably not donating to your opponents' campaigns. And loyalty seems particularly important with the current administration, because they have an agenda full of things that are illegal or otherwise unsavory and un-American, so they need a nation run by loyal henchmen if the agenda is to succeed.
- cbgb2 1y ago
  Maybe lobbyists should be punished by having their skin fully tattooed blue like smurfs. This way, you’d have to really be into lobbying to suffer the tattoo pain and permanent branding.
  - foxglacier 1y ago
    Or voters should take some civic responsibility and stop voting for corrupt politicians. Americans seem to be either unable to make their own decisions without paid advertising to direct them or they're afraid of "wasting" their vote on candidates that didn't spend enough on advertising.
    - mptest 1y ago
      this is just a more abstract "bootstraps" argument. schooling in this country has been systematically attacked and deconstructed, and as the burger reich's leader says, "i love the poorly educated". this is not "dum timmy votes for dum thing" it's "countless $ and effort and man hours have been devoted to making the american populace dumber" Why? look at any polling breakdown for how the educated vote vs the uneducated.
    - whoooboyy 1y ago
      Try telling people you voted third party because of a deeply held conviction about not electing corrupt politicians. You will be told you are evil, that you've got an unreasonable/impossible purity bar, that you don't really believe in that deeply held moral conviction actually, that you are worse than the people who voted for the other guy, that you are a utopian idealist, etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I did vote third party and I will continue to do so if the Dems put up candidates like Harris and Biden. But don't expect most people to be willing to weather the storm of vitriol they'll receive for holding a high bar for their politicians.
      - petralithic 1y ago
        It's more that voting third party in a first-past-the-post voting scheme is systemically pointless.
- com2kid 1y ago
  I am surprised no one has started a go fund me to make a fund just to bribe politicians to fix tax filing. It would be cost effective VS paying for tax prep!
  - vkou 1y ago
    Jon Oliver tried his best to bribe Clarence Thomas, but unfortunately, the prick turns out to only be for sale to one side. You might run into similar problems.
    - kgwxd 1y ago
      economies of scale, he's just being a smart businessman.
  - sobkas 1y ago
    > I am surprised no one has started a go fund me to make a fund just to bribe politicians to fix tax filing. > > It would be cost effective VS paying for tax prep! It will not work, part of compensation is being hired as lobbyist after you "retire" from public office. So either go fund me will do the same or it will fail.
    - com2kid 1y ago
      > It will not work, part of compensation is being hired as lobbyist after you "retire" from public office. So either go fund me will do the same or it will fail. This is a bit reductive. Not everyone member of Congress goes to work for TurboTax after they retire! However I imagine Inuit is a reliable source of campaign contributions every year. The simple solution is to get enough funding that the campaign can promise 3 or 4 election cycles of support for any politicians that vote in favor of tax filing reform.
      - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
        There's no guarantee this doesn't simply make the bribe more expensive for Intuit.
- passwordoops 1y ago
  Most bribes are
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
themafia 1y ago
[flagged]
- hiddencost 1y ago
  You're clearly not paying attention. Which checks? The supreme Court OKed stopping people because they were brown ("Kavanaugh stops") and Congress has lost the power of the purse.
  - themafia 1y ago
    > You're clearly not paying attention. You clearly just want to have a convenient source for your frustration and show no interest in actually solving the problem permanently. > Which checks? Congress. They pass laws. The administration is bound, by the constitution, to follow those laws and to administrate them with "due care." > The supreme Court OKed stopping people because they were brown ("Kavanaugh stops") and Congress has lost the power of the purse What does this have to do with tax law?
    - briandoll 1y ago
      You can't possibly be serious right now. This administration has done nothing but skirt every law at every level. Look around.
    - petralithic 1y ago
      And what if the executive does not care to administrate and follow those laws, and Congress does not care or more truthfully cannot do anything even if it did?
    - sofixa 1y ago
      > Congress. They pass laws. The administration is bound, by the constitution, to follow those laws and to administrate them with "due care." About that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States
- ChadNauseam 1y ago
thetallgeek 1y ago
There's more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_q741QO_m0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_q741QO_m0
hypeatei 1y ago
I thought we were draining the swamp >:(
barbazoo 1y ago
People could do a gofundme to get the bribe together if they wanted to get something done. Power to the people /s

Money well spent https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-gave-trump-210621550.html?guccounter=1 https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-makers-turbotax-gave-trum...

grandpoobah 1y ago

Such a cheap bribe holy crap.

codeddesign 1y ago
[flagged]
- epistasis 1y ago
  > Don’t be an idiot. ... failed worse than the Obamacare rollout This is a very rude and inappropriate way to deliver your misinformation. The program was hugely popular and successfull
vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
When you look at the donations politicians receive and the ROI they produce you quickly realize that they are way too cheap. Politicians should ask for way more money so lobbying is not that incredibly profitable.
- latexr 1y ago
  > Politicians should ask for way more money so lobbying is not that incredibly profitable. Except those corrupt politicians want lobbying to be profitable, so they can profit from it too. And if they ask for too much, they’ll just bribe the next guy or may even try to put their own in office. Can’t have that!
  - c0balt 1y ago
    Healthy competition, the free market has resolved the issues of overpriced bribes. /s
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      I'm surprised that politicians haven't established burdensome and expensive professional compliance and licensure requirements for their own trade to restrict upstart competition. Every other trade pays them to implement the same so it's not like they're not familiar with how to do it.
      - nerdponx 1y ago
        No need: campaign financing, low turnout, and incumbent bias are all substantial barriers to entry.
  - gigatree 1y ago
    Ah yes, the free market
  - cogman10 1y ago
    Especially since they so often land jobs for themselves and their kids with the people that lobby them. Kirsten Sinema got a job as a senior lobbiest after her short congressional stint.
    - nerdponx 1y ago
      Synema is a particularly fun example because you can tell where her loyalties laid from her voting record.
- eru 1y ago
  Compare https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in... and https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on-the-almonds https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on...
- nerdponx 1y ago
  The individual bribes aren't the whole picture. The bribes are statements of loyalty. If I am reliably donating to your campaign every couple of years, then I am probably not donating to your opponents' campaigns. And loyalty seems particularly important with the current administration, because they have an agenda full of things that are illegal or otherwise unsavory and un-American, so they need a nation run by loyal henchmen if the agenda is to succeed.
cbgb2 1y ago
Maybe lobbyists should be punished by having their skin fully tattooed blue like smurfs. This way, you’d have to really be into lobbying to suffer the tattoo pain and permanent branding.
- foxglacier 1y ago
  Or voters should take some civic responsibility and stop voting for corrupt politicians. Americans seem to be either unable to make their own decisions without paid advertising to direct them or they're afraid of "wasting" their vote on candidates that didn't spend enough on advertising.
  - mptest 1y ago
    this is just a more abstract "bootstraps" argument. schooling in this country has been systematically attacked and deconstructed, and as the burger reich's leader says, "i love the poorly educated". this is not "dum timmy votes for dum thing" it's "countless $ and effort and man hours have been devoted to making the american populace dumber" Why? look at any polling breakdown for how the educated vote vs the uneducated.
  - whoooboyy 1y ago
    Try telling people you voted third party because of a deeply held conviction about not electing corrupt politicians. You will be told you are evil, that you've got an unreasonable/impossible purity bar, that you don't really believe in that deeply held moral conviction actually, that you are worse than the people who voted for the other guy, that you are a utopian idealist, etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I did vote third party and I will continue to do so if the Dems put up candidates like Harris and Biden. But don't expect most people to be willing to weather the storm of vitriol they'll receive for holding a high bar for their politicians.
    - petralithic 1y ago
      It's more that voting third party in a first-past-the-post voting scheme is systemically pointless.
com2kid 1y ago
I am surprised no one has started a go fund me to make a fund just to bribe politicians to fix tax filing. It would be cost effective VS paying for tax prep!
- vkou 1y ago
  Jon Oliver tried his best to bribe Clarence Thomas, but unfortunately, the prick turns out to only be for sale to one side. You might run into similar problems.
  - kgwxd 1y ago
    economies of scale, he's just being a smart businessman.
- sobkas 1y ago
  > I am surprised no one has started a go fund me to make a fund just to bribe politicians to fix tax filing. > > It would be cost effective VS paying for tax prep! It will not work, part of compensation is being hired as lobbyist after you "retire" from public office. So either go fund me will do the same or it will fail.
  - com2kid 1y ago
    > It will not work, part of compensation is being hired as lobbyist after you "retire" from public office. So either go fund me will do the same or it will fail. This is a bit reductive. Not everyone member of Congress goes to work for TurboTax after they retire! However I imagine Inuit is a reliable source of campaign contributions every year. The simple solution is to get enough funding that the campaign can promise 3 or 4 election cycles of support for any politicians that vote in favor of tax filing reform.
    - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
      There's no guarantee this doesn't simply make the bribe more expensive for Intuit.
passwordoops 1y ago
Most bribes are

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

themafia 1y ago

[flagged]

hiddencost 1y ago
You're clearly not paying attention. Which checks? The supreme Court OKed stopping people because they were brown ("Kavanaugh stops") and Congress has lost the power of the purse.
- themafia 1y ago
  > You're clearly not paying attention. You clearly just want to have a convenient source for your frustration and show no interest in actually solving the problem permanently. > Which checks? Congress. They pass laws. The administration is bound, by the constitution, to follow those laws and to administrate them with "due care." > The supreme Court OKed stopping people because they were brown ("Kavanaugh stops") and Congress has lost the power of the purse What does this have to do with tax law?
  - briandoll 1y ago
    You can't possibly be serious right now. This administration has done nothing but skirt every law at every level. Look around.
  - petralithic 1y ago
    And what if the executive does not care to administrate and follow those laws, and Congress does not care or more truthfully cannot do anything even if it did?
  - sofixa 1y ago
    > Congress. They pass laws. The administration is bound, by the constitution, to follow those laws and to administrate them with "due care." About that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States
ChadNauseam 1y ago

thetallgeek 1y ago

There's more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_q741QO_m0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_q741QO_m0

hypeatei 1y ago

I thought we were draining the swamp >:(

barbazoo 1y ago

People could do a gofundme to get the bribe together if they wanted to get something done. Power to the people /s