In Washington’s coming budget battles, sacred cows like the tax deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable donations are likely to be on the table along with potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
But no one on Capitol Hill believes Wall Street’s beloved carried-interest tax loophole will be touched.
Don’t blame the newly elected Republican Congress.
Democrats didn’t repeal the loophole when they ran both houses of Congress from January 2009 to January 2011. And the reason they didn’t has a direct bearing on the future of the party.
First, let me explain why this loophole is the most flagrant of all giveaways to the super-rich.
Carried interest allows hedge-fund and private-equity managers, as well as many venture capitalists and partners in real estate investment trusts, to treat their take of the profits as capital gains ― taxed at maximum rate of 23.8 percent instead of the 39.6 percent maximum applied to ordinary income.
It’s a pure scam. They get the tax break even though they invest other people’s money rather than risk their own.
The loophole has no economic justification. As one private-equity manager told me recently, “I can’t defend it. No one can.”
It’s worth about $11 billion a year ― more than enough to extend unemployment benefits to every one of America’s nearly 3 million long-term unemployed.
The hedge-fund, private-equity and other fund managers who receive this $11 billion are some of the richest people in America. Forbes lists 46 billionaires who have derived most of their wealth from managing hedge funds. Mitt Romney used the carried-interest loophole to help limit his effective tax rate in 2011 to 13.9 percent.
So why didn’t Democrats close the loophole when they ran Congress?
Actually, in 2010, House Democrats finally squeaked through a tax plan that did close the carried-interest loophole, but the Democratically controlled Senate wouldn’t go along.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of those who argued against closing it, said the U.S. “shouldn’t do anything” to “make it easier for capital and ideas to flow to London or anywhere else.” As if Wall Street needed an $11 billion annual bribe to stay put.
To find the real reason Democrats didn’t close the loophole, follow the money. Wall Street is one of the Democratic Party’s biggest contributors.
The Street donated $49.1 million to Democrats in 2010, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Hedge-fund managers alone accounted for $5.88 million of the total. Schumer and a few other influential Democrats were among the industry’s major beneficiaries.
"... It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."....I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Friday, December 12, 2014
DEMOCRATS LOVE THEIR WALLSTREET LIBERAL POLITICAL FUNDING THUS NO LEGISLATION TO CURTAIL THEIR BEHAVIOUR NOR REMOVE THEIR TAX INCENTIVES JUST AS LONG AS THE SAME DEMOCRATS CAN TAX THE MIDDLE CLASS AND CORPORATIONS THAT EMPLOYS PEOPLE BUT DON’T TOUCH WALLSTREET WHO EARNS NOTHING THAT WOULD EMPLOY THE PEOPLE TO WORK– AND WHY WOULD THE DEMOCRATS SLAP THE WALLSTREET HAND THAT STROKES THEM AND FEED THEM - READ THE OPINION FROM ROBERT REICH
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