[lbo-talk] other puzzles in American politics

SA s11131978 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 29 01:39:29 PDT 2011


[The best thing about the debt ceiling thing is how it tends to throw into relief certain underlying dynamics in American politics. It's like when the tide goes out and suddenly you can see the ocean floor, which was there all along but invisible.]

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/28/whos-missing-from-debt-talks-corporate-america/


> If the specter of a default has spooked corporate America, you
> wouldn't know it by watching their hired guns in Washington over the
> last several weeks.
>
> Aside from sending a handful of letters urging Congress to act, the
> big business lobby has mostly hugged the sidelines as the partisan
> standoff over the debt limit crisis intensified. That appears poised
> to change, now that there are only five days to go until the Treasury
> Department says it will run out of money to pay all the federal
> government's bills.
>
> [...]
>
> But the argument points to what has been perhaps the most powerful
> motivator in keeping big business mum: fear of what could end up in
> whatever package makes it into law. As long as tax hikes remained on
> the table as a means of trimming the deficit, industries that could
> see their bottom lines bitten wanted to reserve the right to object.
>
> Indeed, it's not that there's been no active lobbying on the debt
> ceiling by corporate interests. From April through June, more than 140
> outfits reported lobbying work on the issue, according to a review of
> disclosure reports by the Sunlight Foundation. The vast majority
> appears to have engaged to protect narrow tax privileges, or even seek
> new breaks. Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oracle (ORCL), Exxon Mobil (XOM),
> Pfizer (PFE), Devon Energy (DVN), Northrop Grumman (NOC), and Wal-Mart
> (WMT) all reported at least monitoring the talks. Some no doubt felt
> more threatened than others. With President Obama making a refrain of
> the charge that Republicans want to protect a tax break for corporate
> jet owners at the expense of seniors and middle-income earners, the
> National Business Aviation Association launched an effort to defend
> the provision as a job-creator.
>
> [...]
>
> Or, as one Republican lobbyist describes the investment by K Street's
> power-players: "They couldn't have done less if they tried, spent zero
> dollars and no cents. And it's because they're gutless. They've not
> done anything because they don't want to pop their heads above ground
> and get their heads taken off."



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