“In a remarkable illustration of the power of lobbying in Washington, a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they spent on the issue — a 22,000 percent rate of return on their investment.” A new study by three University of Kansas profs tries to quantify exactly the amount of lucre generated by the lobbyists and influence-peddlers aswarm in Washington for their employers. And the answer? A whole lot. “The paper…examined the impact of a one-time tax break approved by Congress in 2004 that allowed multinational corporations to ‘repatriate’ profits earned overseas, effectively reducing their tax rate on the money from 35 percent to 5.25 percent. More than 800 companies took advantage of the legislation, saving an estimated $100 billion in the process.” [Hattip: Tim C. and Marginal Revolution.]
2 thoughts on “No Better Investment.”
Comments are closed.
I’ve always been amazed at how cheap influence peddling is. Do campaign finance reforms keep lawmakers from simply selling to the highest bidder and therefore driving up prices?
(or maybe it’s actually more expensive than we think, and the real money gets funneled to Congress in ways we don’t know about)
I’d guess it’s a little of both: CFR forces corruption under-the-table and prevents the Blagojevichs and Duke Cunninghams of this world from asking for really exorbitant personal sums. At the same time, I’m sure all sorts of deals are made involving building factories, etc. in a given district.