The people v. deep pockets

By Libby This just wigs me out. If our Congresslizards had even the barest modicum of real concern about the plight of working class Americans, the long overdue reform of hedge fund taxation wouldn't even be a question. Later this week, Democrats will face more scrutiny over that choice. The House is to vote on a bill to stave off growth of the alternative minimum tax for a year, offer new tax breaks to middle-class homeowners and expand tax rebates for low-income parents -- paid for largely by nearly $50 billion in tax increases on the burgeoning hedge fund and private-equity industries. [...] "If you're a Democrat and you have to choose between the alternative minimum tax and the hedge fund industry, that's one tough ideological choice," said Viva Hammer, who recently left the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy and is now a tax partner at the law firm Crowell & Moring. "It's a choice between your votes and your wallet." The choice between doing their job to represent the best interests of the people over securing their incumbency protection funding shouldn't be so agonizing and the nexus between the hedge funders' contributions to the party and the votes couldn't be clearer. Worse yet the Congresslizards sell us out for a few million in their own pockets while cheating the national treasury out of billions that these guys could well afford to kick in for the common good. This is why I think we need to kick out a few high profile incumbents. We can't afford to bribe them but if we make them pay the price at the ballot box for pocketing the payola they may just think twice before they sell their votes to the highest bidder.