The Anxiety of Influence: Few issues bring politicians more business lobbying donations than tax reform, which creates instant anxiety in every monied interest group in the land. Maybe their special little tax break will be eliminated. Who knows? Better to pay up to make sure it isn’t. … P.S.: Come to think of it, if you tried to explain the debt-ceiling fight with this causal rubric
Congress doing whatever promises to milk maximum campaign dollars from lobbyists
you might not need another explanation. …It’s easy: 1) First, you threaten a huge tax reform deal. … 2) Then you draw out the negotiations, maximizing corporate anxiety and lengthening the period for prophylactic donations. … 3)Then you kick it over into next year, and probably to the next election. Better help re-elect your Congressional friends (and soften up your enemies) or else you might be unprotected in 2013, when the crunch comes. …
Good for incumbents, good for the Beltway, good for America! Especially Tysons Corner.
P.S.: In California they call such a piece of legislation a “juice bill.” The biggest state “juice bill,” if I recall, involved “unitary taxation” of corporations. But this may be the biggest juice bill in federal history. Even Lanny Davis will get new clients. …