Jonathan Rauch is the latest to insist that dishonesty and good government go hand-in-hand. What he doesn't realize is that corruption is alive in Washington — and letting it flourish won't solve our problems.
Continue readingLobbyists save big businesses from fiscal cliff tax hikes
Congress may have averted the fiscal cliff, raising taxes on households making more than $450,000, ending the payroll tax holiday which will take a bite from workers' paychecks, and leaving the bigger issues of raising the debt ceiling, reforming entitlements and addressing federal spending to the next Congress. While the fiscal cliff deal results in a tax hike for all workers, some special interests preserved their favorite tax breaks the old fashioned way: lobbying and contributing to members of Congress.
Most of the goodies sprinkled through the American Taxpayer Relief Act have been on the wish lists of big ...
Continue readingInfluence Explored: Corporations lobby for tax breaks
An article on the front page of the New York Times yesterday reported on the pressure some major corporations—such as Microsoft—... View Article
Continue readingLobbyists help lower corporate tax rates for companies investing in alternative energy
The alternative energy heavy NextEra Energy already had six different firms helping it lobby on tax policy when it brought... View Article
Continue readingSearch new Subsidyscope database on federal aid to nonprofits
In fiscal year 2008, the federal government gave $38 billion in grants to nonprofit entities and spent $10 billion on non-competed contracts with nonprofits. Billions were also taken in tax expenditures benefiting nonprofits, representing foregone revenues of $50 billion in 2008.
Excluding contracts, that means that the average U.S. household spent $430 a year on programs to nonprofit entities such as universities, hospitals and charities in 2008.
Loans and loan guarantees made by the government, known as risk transfers, also represent a subsidy. In 2008, the federal government lent at more than $7 billion to ... Continue reading
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