"What we're saying is get rid of special interest loopholes and deductions that are uniquely enjoyed by the wealthy," Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan recently told the Fox News network. Ryan was explaining how he and Governor Mitt Romney could enact more than $4 trillion in tax cuts, largely for the wealthy, without raising taxes on the middle class.
While Ryan's words resonated as much now as they did two years ago when he introduced his original plan, Ryan's budgets have failed to include a single example of which loopholes he would close for wealthy special interests. And given his ties to many of the special interests who are clearly benefitting from them, it's not hard to see why.
In fairness to Chairman Ryan, the problem of big money affecting budget and tax policy transcends party affiliation. Thanks to the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United two years ago, corporate money has flowed into political ads via Super PACs and shadowy groups cloaked as social welfare organizations. Though elected officials, like Ryan, don't run these groups, they are often associated with them and involved in attracting and maintaining donors.
Though some Democrats are just as complicit as Republicans in raising these million dollar donations, it's no secret that the outside Republican groups have vastly outraised and will no doubt outspend the Democratic groups, with Republican causes already pledging to spend $400 million to defeat the Democrats in 2012.
Closing special interest tax loopholes that benefit the few at the expense of the many requires standing up to the special interests that benefit from them. That is hard to do when you are closely associated with those same wealthy few in order to raise money for your election, which may be Ryan's problem, and is certainly an issue for the Romney campaign.
Ryan has close ties to one of the biggest spending groups, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which according to a recent analysis by ProPublica, has spent $18 million so far this election cycle on ads attacking President Obama.
From tax returns, we know that AFP is funded in part by the Koch brothers. According to the group's tax returns, its donors include a $1 million contribution from the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2008, a $67,556 contribution from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2009, and a $7.7 million dollar contribution in 2010 laundered through a group called the Donors Trust, which is funded by yet another group chaired by Charles Koch, the Knowledge and Progress Fund.
Ryan is reportedly one of the few lawmakers to appear at the Koch brother's twice-yearly conferences for the millionaires who fund their conservative causes, and Ryan has also participated in conference calls and teleconferences with AFP activists in at least four different states. The Koch brothers have also contributed to Ryan directly, with Koch industries ranking among his top 20 donors during his Congressional tenure for both his Leadership PAC and campaign committee combined.
From his relationship with Koch industries, the largest oil and gas campaign contributor, it is fair to assume that for Ryan, closing special interest tax loopholes will not translate into recouping the billions of dollars a year that the Big 5 oil companies get away with in tax breaks while pocketing more than $1 trillion in profits. What's more, the Romney campaign has explicitly supported these loopholes, and Harold Hamm, an oil executive and Super PAC donor, is Romney's chief energy advisor.
Ryan also reportedly has close ties with a number of prominent Republican hedge fund billionaires close to the Kochs and to Romney, including Paul Singer, Kenneth Griffin, and Cliff Asness. In fact, the securities and investment industries have contributed nearly half a million to Ryan's Leadership PAC (Prosperity PAC) and his campaign committee, combined, with the biggest contributors either employees or family members of Elliot Management, a Wall Street hedge fund owned by Singer. Other top Ryan contributors include individuals from Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors and the Affiliated Managers Group based in Massachusetts.
Understanding Ryan's relationship with the hedge fund billionaires who we know are giving mega contributions to the Super PACS supporting Romney and suspect are also funding conservative groups, it is hard to see how Ryan could support ending the so-called carried interest loophole, a $10 billion dollar tax break that allows hedge fund millionaires to avoid paying a 35 percent tax rate on the bulk of their income. As for Romney, he continues to dodge the question of whether he would support closing the carried interest loophole.
The truth is, as long as elected officials are in a race to raise money in million dollar increments, it's hard to see how any of them will be able to close the many tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the middle class. The Romney-Ryan campaign has already made clear to the Tax Policy Center that no corporate taxes would be cut to finance their proposed 25 percent corporate tax rate.
Real tax reform will require fundamental campaign finance reform, including meaningful limits on campaign contributions and expenditures, whether through a Constitutional Amendment, public financing, or a sea change in the Court's view of money in politics over the next generation.
So, for now, it's hardly surprising that despite the rhetoric, the only specifics Ryan and Romney are able to give are on which loopholes they will continue to protect. What is surprising is if anyone really believes that the new tax cuts will be paid for by standing up to special interests.
An earlier version of this post implied that Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors itself was a Ryan donor, rather than individuals from that firm. This has since been clarified.
Amy Rosenbaum is a Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at the corrupting influence of money on our politics August 29th and September 5th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.
Just listening to the GOP convention makes it clear that the moneyed investor employer class has a new vision for America -- and eventually all of the earth -- as a world of a few landed gentry w/religious zealot warriors ready to go to war at the stroke of a clerec's pen to quell any disharmony -- domestic or international -- w/everyone else living the lives of sharecroppers or indentured servants.
Any people that dare to disagree with the status quo and seek a better life would be quickly identified and located by all those interconnected public and private cameras and computers and scooped up and held for indefinite dention while they can be indoctrinated and brainwashed to accept the new status quo as "meek" follower class that expect their reward after death - to inherit the earth and spend eternity free of want in "heaven".
Bruce and Dick in the Batman and Robin Tv series from
The 60's if only Dick er I mean Ryan were shorter.
Our elected officials are beholding to the wealthy contributors they rely upon to survive the election process. It is obviously a corrupt system that could never work for the people.
What we need to do is get the money out of politics. There are numerous plans to do that, we just need to select one and go with it. It is time to move, folks, let's get on with it!
in 1930 hoover cut the income tax in half. it helped the wealthy as the common man got an extra $10 to spend for the year. does this sound familiar?
by the end of ww II, the distribution of wealth was more evenly distributated.
But I agree, get rid of ALL deductions for everyone/corporation. One pays X% up to a cretain point/a higher % up to a certain point and so on no matter how it's earned.
The Dodd Frank Act is 849 pages long.
As I said I was wondering how many loopholes are in the Dodd Frank Act?
A deduction in tax reduction is taken at the taxpayer's tax bracket.
So, for every $1000 in mortgage interest deducted, a person in the 35% bracket gets a tax reduction of $350. Conversely, a person in the 20% bracket gets a tax reduction of $200. This person is treated unfairly to the extent of $150 per thousand of tax reduction.
How to change it?
Make it a mortgage interest credit. In a credit, the tax bracket has nothing to do with it. One dollar of credit yields one dollar of tax reduction. The high tax bracket is treated equally with the lower tax brackets in reducing tax because of mortgage interest.
Absolutely correct. And the only hope of getting that is by voting a straight Dem ticket this time. Not that Democrats are less corrupt by money than the Republicans (just human nature), but this time their self-serving interest (limiting the financial advantage of the opposition) happens to be in line with good governance policy.
And I really want to punish the mentality of putting party ahead of country.
Not that it would ever effect me.